So this week we started getting the chickens used to different temperatures and sleep schedules. This is always a fun week. We are taking away the heat lamp and started adjusting them to cooler temperatures. This is always a good idea when you are eventually going to move the chicks outside. Ideally, it is much better to have a broody hen raise them. But since we don’t encourage broody hens, right now anyway, we have to play mother hen to them. Normally a hen will sit on them and monitor the chicks temperature naturally. She will teach them how to chicken naturally.
So the way I do this is pretty simple really. Once they are a couple weeks old, I start taking away the heat light. Since it is fairly warm in the house, they do not require the lamp so much anymore. This will help them once they move outside to the cooler temps, to not go into shock from climate change.
When taking away the heat lamp we are also training the chicks how days work. When the sun comes out, they wake up. And when the sun goes down (you guessed it….) it is bed time. They catch onto this pretty fast really.
When we turned off the light today, it was rainy and stormy outside. The house wasn’t nearly as bright as usual. And as you can see, the chicks all went to sleep. When I walked by the bin this afternoon, I had to take a double take. I thought they were all dead. Nope, just sleeping. Thankfully.
Here are an Americana and a Cornish Cross this week. As you can see, the Cornish Cross Chicks are getting big, fast. They drink a bunch and are taking over the tote!
The Americana chicks are losing their baby feathers and getting their primary feathers. But the Americana and the Australorp’s are pretty small still and can fit easily into the palm of you hand.
The Cornish Cross have a much bigger wing span and the primary feathers are much bigger.
I am hoping that next week we will be able to move them outside to the big chicken coop. That is an adventure by itself!
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