Oh those are cute little chicks! And your coop and run are beautiful!
More than anything about chickens, I want to say congratulations on your upcoming baby! Please remember that you are the Queen Bee right now and don't feel bad about making people scurry to help you in any way. And keep cool!
On topic now: I'm a newbie to chicks too, and am still completely confused about temperatures for them even after raising three small batches of chicks in our bathroom.
At one point, Batch 1 (the oldest) were in the tub with windowscreens braced across the opening. They were about 8 weeks and waiting for the coop to be finished. No heat lamp.
Batch 2 were the hyperactive kindergartners, got out of the 18" high brooder on their second day. (Granted, they were probably several days old already when I bought them at the feed store.) So in reality they had the run of the bathroom. Their brooder was positioned halfway under the heat lamp.
Batch 3 were three chicks under two weeks old, the youngest just a few days. They were in a huge clear plastic tote with a windowscreen over it. They had the other half of the heat lamp. Ambient bathroom temp about 75-80 with a small electric heater on the counter.
Okay, there is a point to this. None of the chicks ever looked cold to me. If they huddled, it was never all of them and it was just where they fell down to sleep and landed next to each other. No distress-peeping. No panting or staying out of the heat either. Either I was clueless or they were fine.
One day I was sure the littlest ones, Batch 3, had to be cold. The heat lamp was about 4 feet over their screened tote. So I lowered the lamp to about 8 inches above the screen. They didn't act any differently.
But the hyperactive kindergartners (about 3 weeks old) climbed up on the screen and sunbathed under that lamp. It was almost touching them. Then they'd run around the bathroom, jump back in their brooder, and take naps, randomly around the brooder, not huddling.
Point of the story: I totally bungled the whole heat lamp thing, changing it a lot and not seeing the chicks act any differently. In my favor, they were in a constant-temp room with no extremes of heat or cold. So maybe I was just lucky. Or maybe chicks are just tougher than we think.
More than anything about chickens, I want to say congratulations on your upcoming baby! Please remember that you are the Queen Bee right now and don't feel bad about making people scurry to help you in any way. And keep cool!
On topic now: I'm a newbie to chicks too, and am still completely confused about temperatures for them even after raising three small batches of chicks in our bathroom.
At one point, Batch 1 (the oldest) were in the tub with windowscreens braced across the opening. They were about 8 weeks and waiting for the coop to be finished. No heat lamp.
Batch 2 were the hyperactive kindergartners, got out of the 18" high brooder on their second day. (Granted, they were probably several days old already when I bought them at the feed store.) So in reality they had the run of the bathroom. Their brooder was positioned halfway under the heat lamp.
Batch 3 were three chicks under two weeks old, the youngest just a few days. They were in a huge clear plastic tote with a windowscreen over it. They had the other half of the heat lamp. Ambient bathroom temp about 75-80 with a small electric heater on the counter.
Okay, there is a point to this. None of the chicks ever looked cold to me. If they huddled, it was never all of them and it was just where they fell down to sleep and landed next to each other. No distress-peeping. No panting or staying out of the heat either. Either I was clueless or they were fine.
One day I was sure the littlest ones, Batch 3, had to be cold. The heat lamp was about 4 feet over their screened tote. So I lowered the lamp to about 8 inches above the screen. They didn't act any differently.
But the hyperactive kindergartners (about 3 weeks old) climbed up on the screen and sunbathed under that lamp. It was almost touching them. Then they'd run around the bathroom, jump back in their brooder, and take naps, randomly around the brooder, not huddling.
Point of the story: I totally bungled the whole heat lamp thing, changing it a lot and not seeing the chicks act any differently. In my favor, they were in a constant-temp room with no extremes of heat or cold. So maybe I was just lucky. Or maybe chicks are just tougher than we think.
