I’m definitely learning as we go with these chicks. Before we had chicks, I did my research, visited chickens, and consulted with my folks, but there are still aspects that I didn’t really get until we had chicks. Like how much they eat. And that it is easier to put a divider in the brooder rather than remove all the chicks for health checks. It is definitely an experience!

And experimenting to see what the chicks like is also interesting. We have two brooders and I set up the second one at a different height (at the suggestion of my folks). They seem to like it. We’ll see where they curl up to sleep. (Maybe they will all just sleep on top like this one!)

Brooders at two different heights

And if you are carrying two gallons of water down to the coop in the dark, turning on the flashlight on your phone and tucking the phone in the top of your jeans in front of your belly button makes a pretty good area light.

I took video of the chicks sleeping. No one is sleeping on top. A few are under the higher brooder. Most are squeezed against the far wall. Their fancy LED nightlight broke and I had to find a substitute. Between that and the confusion of two brooders instead of one seemed to throw them into a tizzy. Bedtime was harder today, basically. There will probably be a higher incidence of pasty butt tomorrow. Sigh.