The Chicks Have Arrived!

New Chicks!

Today has been a day, let me tell you! This post is long. Just like my day. There is just no short way to describe it. Buckle in and enjoy the farm life ride….

Yesterday we picked up the adorable little chicks! We brought them home and set them up in the brooder. They seemed to be doing great! We hung out with them for a bit and then let them be. Checked on them before bed and in the morning when we woke up. 

I actually didn’t sleep well last night because I kept worrying about them or dreaming bears got into the barn and ate them all. We don’t even have bears here…but a mama’s thoughts always go to the worst case scenario! I woke with CJ at 6am to come out and check on them. This is very unlike me! I don’t get up early if I don’t have too! But I needed to make sure they were safe. 

Upon checking on them we found that they were safe. Although, we did lose one chick. He had a difficult time in transport and just didn’t recover. All of the other 99 chicks were safe though.

We did notice this morning that the temperature was dangerously low in the brooder. It should be 95 degrees, but it wasn’t even reaching 80 in there. CJ placed a foam board outside the brooder and some wood on the outside of the barn to help with the draft. He had to leave for work so advised me to keep an eye on them.  As I checked on them the temperature was not coming up. We have two heat lamps in there. One is a regular heat lamp that produces a red glow, the other lamp provides heat but no actual light. Under the regular heat lamp, the chicks looked comfortable, moving around, not huddled up in a pile. Under the other lamp though, they were huddled directly under it, trying to stay warm, often piling on top of one another. 

I tried to get in touch with CJ, but as life with an Army guy would go, he was working in an area with no cell reception and I am all alone on this one. This dream of his is now in my hands… this dream, these chicks, that he has told me will absolutely die if they get too cold and I don’t know what to do. 

I know what I’m not going to do though… let those chickies die! Commence Operation Warm Up! This is not the 1st time I have been left alone with little ones depending solely on me for survival… I do have two real children, they lived. I can do this. 

First, I join at least 10 chicken groups on Facebook. Use what you got! Posted pictures and asked questions. I did get some good help there, it was unanimous that I close up the brooder area. CJ had used a square area that was walled on two sides. He enclosed only the bottom of the other two sides with wood to keep the heat in. However,  the top on two sides were still open with nothing but hardware cloth (which is just wire to keep predators out). It was NOT holding heat. 

Ok, so I look around trying to find anything I can to enclose the area. A boogie board, random piece of foam board and a wood board. That made the one side a tad taller and did raise the temp to 82, progress but not enough. 

Ok…  new idea… Blanket fort here we come! I run in the house and get two old comforters. Now I am a short woman, and I knew this was going to be difficult so I got the kids out there to help me. Lil CJ climbs up on the top of it, (there is space above for storage) and Alayna and I throw the blanket up. He moves all of the items up there in a rather haphazard way (sorry CJ, lives were at stake here) and places some heavy items on top to hold the blanket. On the other side of the brooder there were some nails already up so Alayna and I draped each end on a nail and hung something heavy over the blanket/nail to hold it on. I have no clue what that heavy thing was, Alayna guessed something to do with putting horseshoes on horses??? I just know it was heavy, metal, and it held the blanket. Use what ya got! This raised the temp to 84. More progress but still not enough. 

More looking around outside for random material. I notice we have some aluminum sheeting that’s nice and toasty warm in the sunlight. I also notice that there is light coming through the outside wall of the barn allowing draft to enter the brooder. I have a plan. I go to lift six of the sheets to move over there. Ummmmmm…. These things are pretty heavy for thin sheets! Also, again, I am short so I can only lift them so far off the ground. Ugh. So I have to move 2 at a time, I get them there though. Only to find, of course, that they are too long. There is a wood stack in a metal holder in the way. Why can’t anything be easy?   I know what I have to do. I unstack most of the wood and call Alayna out to help me. I slide the metal frame out just enough that we can get the sheets behind it to fit the area. Alayna has to hold each flimsy sheet up with her butt while I get the others. Once they are all there, we realize that we don’t know how we are going to keep them there. Oops. didn’t think that far ahead. Alayna has the easy job of standing there butt holding them while I brainstorm. I can’t drag the metal holder (still has enough wood in it to make it too heavy to drag) and even if I could Alayna would be in the way, if she moves, they fall. Sooooooo I slide it back over just the end of the sheeting and Alayna uses a tall board and Tanks 5 gallon bucket of water to hold the middle. That worked surprisingly well so we added some more boards and water buckets. Of course the water bucket I chose had holes all in the bottom that I did not notice until it was full and leaking everywhere. Ugh, thankfully we have a surplus of random buckets here on the farm. This works great and increases the inside temp to 86. UGHHHHHHH…. Still not enough! 

Ok, I can’t enclose this thing anymore than I have. Something else has to change. The source. It’s walled, covered, and still not enough, let’s look at the source of heat. They are still huddling under that one bulb. I don’t like that bulb. I get out a ladder and go climbing around the storage area of the barn looking for more bulbs. Of course, I find more of the bulbs I don’t like and none of the ones I do like. Fine. In the car and off to Ace Hardware I go. I buy another bulb. 

On the way home I listen to (or rather blare) “Staying Alive” by the BeeGees and changing the words to “ I I I I will keep you allliiiivvvvveeee” and emphasising “somebody help me, yeah”. I can admit this. I was stressed. 

Just moments before I get to my driveway, I get a notification on my phone that a package was just delivered from Amazon. Pull in and yep…. Can you guess what it was???? Replacement bulbs for the bulb I just bought. Seriously? 

I get in the house, grab the gloves that we keep by the wood stove (to handle the hot bulb) and head out to the brooder. I unplug the heat lamp, wait a min or too and go to change the bulb. Now I know that it is a heat lamp. I know that bulb is hot, BUT I figure these gloves that we purposely keep by the stove are designed for really hot things. They are not. Not at all. Smoke forms, and I feel the heat. Gloves are burning. This is my life. Ok, I wait a little longer. I chill for 10 minutes or so playing with my chickies. The bulb is safe to handle now. I do set it outside the brooder on the concrete just in case though. Change the bulb. Now we wait. No use going back inside the house. I’ve already got so many pine shavings stuck to me that I look like a chicken myself. I need to make sure the temperature rises and holds. It takes about a half hour for the temp to rise to 95 and another half hour of it holding at that temp.

Operation Warm Up is a success!!!! I have single handedly saved the lives of 99 chickaroos! I shall henceforth be known as Chicken Master. I saved the farm! I am incredibly proud of myself, in case you didn’t notice. 

CJ arrives home and I advise him of success, my name change, and inform him that these are now MY chickens. I also inform him that I really really deserve that new Samsung fridge with interactive display that I have been wanting! (can’t hurt)