congratulations cathy!
it is actualy very normal,becoming a chick or chicken mum is never as simple as it looks, unless have been blessed with miracle nothing goes as planned.
am going to make a bet that will end up buying an incubator,its a lifelong condition-once people get chickenitis it attaches to the dna and spreads to the kids as well.
with the heat lamp,it might be easier using a lower wattage bulb if its one of those very high powered wide bulbs,its easier to tailor temperature of a lower wattage than it is of a high powered lamp.
we had an extremely overpowering one and it heated up the entire bedroom,was feeling sick all the time from the heat plus support staff coud never get the temperature to stabilise.
-if find it a problem theres always the option of getting a thermostat controled heat lamp.
as for spreading out-oh yes,they love to let everything spread out,like lazy cats in front of a warm fire.
these are mine a short time ago,sat right next to them;theyre chillin whilst am browsing BYC -
http://sadpanda.us/images/1041823-X7STER4.jpg
temple [the chick at the top] is now spread out like a rug.
the only advice can think of right now is to get a basic understanding of spotting illnesses and issues such as pasty butt or coccidiosis,chicks can very quickly go down if they have something.
woud recomend bookmarking this poo chart-
http://chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php?topic=17568.0
there is quite a wide spectrum in terms of normal and not normal chicken poo,this article is a superb photographic based example of that so owners can get a rough idea of their chickens.
contact vets now to make sure there is one available who can deal with chickens-its a lot easier looking for them now than when there is an accute problem with the chicks-;they are quite difficiult to come by,mine doesnt work with chickens but he works with a non vet; chicken expert and between them they arrange advice/medicine.
as soon as are aware that any are roos/cockrels,if are not able to keep them all it might be best to start looking for a good home for them now; for when they are old enough to start their life as a fully fledged outdoors mini chicken.
they can be quite hard to home to genuine chicken lovers because some places have local noise laws on roos ,people want hens more often than not and it can be hard to house the boys together.
there are several breeds which its roos cannot be housed together because they will rip each other apart,however any others that were chicks together can get along fine; its a case of only splitting apart when clear problems appear.
apologies if knew all of this!
