Post by Mitra on Aug 19, 2009 20:45:01 GMT -5
I had a near disaster tonight with my newest batch of broiler chicks. I picked up my 150 chicks this afternoon. I dipped all their beaks in clabber and put them in their "baby pen" which is in the basement. The pen is a large plastic pool. It works great because it keeps all drafts off of them. Today I also bought two new waterers but my near fatal mistake was that they are larger than the "chick" waterers. I put a single waterer into the pool, fed them some cottage cheese-like dry clabber and went upstairs to prepare my kids their dinner.
I could hear a lot of peeping coming from the basement but attributed it to the number of chicks and didn't pay much attention. About an 1.5 hours later I went down to the basement to give them some chick starter and check on them. OMG! Several of them were soaking wet to the skin and laying on their backs with their eyes closed feebly moving their legs and about 20-30 more were soaking wet, sitting upright but on their rears and shivering to death. The waterer was too big and had allowed them to actually get into the trough part. As Joann has said many times," Once they get wet, they're like kleenex." I screamed for the kids to come help me and one by one we dried them off and held them under the heat lamp until they were completely fluffy again. This took almost an hour and a half. We added another heat lamp to cut down on the "piling" they were doing. Anyway, I think disaster was averted but holy moly that was close. I guess we'll see tomorrow morning. We're all exhausted. I'm just kicking myself. These are about my 500th chicks. I should know better.
Just checked on them and they are all zooming about at high speeds. Yay!
I could hear a lot of peeping coming from the basement but attributed it to the number of chicks and didn't pay much attention. About an 1.5 hours later I went down to the basement to give them some chick starter and check on them. OMG! Several of them were soaking wet to the skin and laying on their backs with their eyes closed feebly moving their legs and about 20-30 more were soaking wet, sitting upright but on their rears and shivering to death. The waterer was too big and had allowed them to actually get into the trough part. As Joann has said many times," Once they get wet, they're like kleenex." I screamed for the kids to come help me and one by one we dried them off and held them under the heat lamp until they were completely fluffy again. This took almost an hour and a half. We added another heat lamp to cut down on the "piling" they were doing. Anyway, I think disaster was averted but holy moly that was close. I guess we'll see tomorrow morning. We're all exhausted. I'm just kicking myself. These are about my 500th chicks. I should know better.
Just checked on them and they are all zooming about at high speeds. Yay!