Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
RECOGNIZING TEMPERATURE-STRESSED BABIES
Poultry chicks are very good about letting you know when they're too cold or too
warm.
If they are too cold
, they congregate snugly underneath the heat source. They
cheep constantly and don't sleep. The only type of fowl that will not cheep constantly
when cold are turkeys; the chicks are sometimes very quiet when chilled and there-
fore need an even more astute caretaker.
If they're too warm
, they spread out far away from the heat source and make a
lot of noise at the start because they are stressed and trying to get away from the heat.
After a while the chicks may not appear to be under stress because they cheep very
little. However, the cheeping you do hear will be a stressed, frantic cheep, much like
a frightened crowd leaving a burning building. A cold cheep is a slower-paced noise
that sounds entirely different.
Your birds are content
if a few of them sleep underneath the heat lamp and others
are wandering around. Do not be alarmed if they are lounging around sleeping for the
first few days; it is normal behavior for baby chicks. Everything is going smoothly if
you do not have any noise from the baby birds. They will be chirping only a little bit
to communicate with one another if everything is going right.
It may take a few days, but raisers eventually should be able to figure out when
the birds are stressed. Whether from too much heat, too much cold, or not enough
food or water, you will soon learn their different peeps.
Seasonal Heat Adjustments
Once you raise birds for a few years you will realize it takes far more energy — on your
part and on the part of your electricity source — to raise them during the cooler times of
the year. If you plan to start with chicks at the beginning of the year for a 4-H project or
because you want hens to lay in the summer, be prepared to have a warm brooder house
and spend more money on heat to raise them to reach the required maturity level at the
specified time.
If you're located in the north, consider raising chicks once the weather warms up,
when electric heat will not be required for nearly as long and a fancy, insulated building
is unnecessary to get your babies started. Always remember that even if it is warm dur-
ing the day, young poultry still need heat as it cools down in the evenings and at night
during the first four to six weeks of their life. Many raisers have lost their baby birds by
assuming that because it is plenty warm during the day, they needn't provide the birds
with heat at night. If the young birds have access to the sun in the daytime, they can
