Hi Sydney, well despite my nervousness about heat lights in the coop, I’m glad that I set it up. I changed out the 150 for a 250 watt light. At 7:15 AM, I kicked the adults out of the coop. They did not want to go, and Lemon Pie tried to steal Welch’s keets! I’d seen LP on the outside pecking into the coop and wondered who she wanted to attack - looks like she wanted to attack Welch for the keets. LP stole keets from Viceroy last year and then handed the keets over to Scout Red to raise. All well and good but SR didn’t want to stay on the ground with them so they slept with Welch, who was incubating eggs at the time. LP also pushed Welch out then sat and bonded the keets last summer. That was helpful, she was like an Aunt that protected the keets. This morning, I’m not sure what LP was trying to do, but she was attacking and chasing Welch and endangering the keets under foot so I chased her out. I think that the flock may have stopped laying, though there could be yet another nest I can’t find. I’m still so sad for Scout Orange losing her nest and Mud Pie losing her life. Muddy’s feathers are still everywhere! I feel terrible every time I step through them. I took the last few days of eggs out of the fridge and am hoping to sell them to someone who wants a fall hatch as I feel that would honor Muddy. Anyway, I wonder if LP wants to take the keets since there will be no more nests this year…
So, back to the heat light. When I chased the confusion out this morning, I turned on the 250 watt heat light and it was 47 F out (coop temperature log pictured). There is a sickly keet I’m particularly concerned about and expect to lose (upper keet in close up pic). It’s the pastel that was one of the three keets hurt by Hamlet. This pastel keet seemed to bounce back a few hours after the attack with no visible injuries, so it went back in the coop. The royal purple keet with the injured leg was permanently removed from the coop and added to the brooder. I can say confidently now that the little injured RP was the pinto I wanted! But it needed its legs hobbled, had pasty butt, etc so I didn’t try to add it back to the coop but sold it to someone who knew that it was injured but was willing to take care of it. I hope it’s doing well. The little pastel keet that stayed has had something wrong for a few days. I realized yesterday that it was lethargic and stunted next to its clutchmates, so I decided to treat for the treatable and added amprolium to the keets’ water this morning at the high “outbreak” dose. That keet looked rough this morning but spent some time under the heat light, ate some food, drank some amprolium water, and has perked back up. Most of the keets spent time under the light this morning as Welch didn’t stop her pacing to give them a warm up until close to 10 AM. Way too long for 12 day old keets to live at 50 F! Now the coop is warming in the sun and they are all looking pretty lively. I really hope the amprolium and heat help the little pastel keet! I’m wondering if the stress of the attack/injury last week depressed it’s immune system so it became more susceptible to coccidiosis…
I still have the keets in with her at the moment. She gets annoyed and pecks if they're within reach, but she doesn't care if they're under her.
It's been getting down that low here off & on. I'm looking at a past temps graph for my county -the low for the month was 53 an that was when they were 4 wks. Aug 15 low was 59° that was the day after they were were hatched. I remember asking R2elk about the chilly nights & he said they'd be fine under Mama.
