@Rockhead,
Sorry, just got yer note. I still like the big water tub trick and keep em all in a bunch. I use cob or wood chips pn the floor and that way you can keep em cleaned out about 1 a week.(Little buggers are really sloppy ). Water is the thing youll be changing most often. I would change em 3 ,4 times a DAY, they would **** in their water like they have no sense at all.
MEDICATED FOOD , many say to keep that up until they lay their first egg but I quit when they are in their teens (weeks).
I guess the light is still a good idea if you still have cold nights (I just assumed it was really hot out there).
Dont fry the little fuckers , too much heat can be just as bad.
Dont use those red infrared lights (unless your trying to cook em up right off), an incandescent reflector is what we always use.
Of course, we kept our little guys in the living room or family room for many weeks, the water tub keeps the room clean (Exception being if you have a cat who likes to check up on the chicks from the top. This drives em into a frenzy and that results in chickn dust all over the place. We found some old porch screening and old fencing that we used as covers.
Now my chickens from last year are "getting clucky" so I have 4 hens that just disappeared from society and are sitting on egg clutches. We just had about 21 chicks from 2 separate clutches. These guys are about 10 days old also. Were letting the mommas take care of em and the chicks run under the mommas wings as soon as they cant figure anything out (Which is usually all the time)
