So, why have I been so busy? Because tomorrow the baby chicks arrive!!! Hooray! I have spent my time since I got home from school preparing their brooder - where they will spend the next 6-8 weeks of their lives. They have to stay warm before their adult feathers come in which is the purpose of the brooder (a fancy term for a big box with a heat light).
I have had a hard time getting the temperature adjusted correctly. For the first week, the temp has to stay at 95 degrees and then every week after that it lowers 5 degrees until you meet the temperature it is outside. First I bought a heat lamp - wayyy too hot - even raising it as high as it would go it was 112 degrees in there! Yikes! So then I bought a 'brooder light' from Lowe's - still too hot. So Logan and I went back in this evening and got just a plain flood lamp in 2 different wattages and I am having much, much better luck with this. I want it at a stable temp tonight so it will be ready for the chicks tomorrow. I am so excited! They will be spending the first few weeks inside the house so this is going to be REAL interesting!
We got 15 'light Brahma' chicks and then we got 5 free from the feed store - who knows what those will be. Here is what our Brahma girls will look like when they are all grown up -
Beautiful huh? I promise to have lots of pictures tomorrow of chicks and getting settled! Should be interesting to say the least!
1 comment:
You are truly your father's daughter!!!! :-) Can't wait to see the little ones - an enjoyable way relieve some stress.
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