Into the Garage

We've learned a lot during our first foray into raising chicks.

Data point #1:  Chicks are smelly.

The books said so. They were right.  Our go to book, "Living With Chickens", said that after 2 weeks we would want them out of the house. OH yeah.  We wanted them out of the house several days ago but figuring out their new place to live took some time.

Last night, Kevin toiled away for a couple of hours to fashion this new chick habitat in our garage.  It has a warmer.  It has food and water.  It has a chick thermometer in a plastic bag on the floor so we can monitor the temperature in there.  So far, the thermometer has measured between 82 and 86 degrees in that one spot. The chicks seem happy enough and are not crowded together...indeed, many seem to be enjoying some more space to move around.

Tonight the temperature is supposed to drop outside significantly compared to last night. We will probably rig up a second heat lamp to make sure the chicks don't get too cold.  So long as there is a place in their cage to move if they get too warm, they should be fine.

We've decided that in the future, we will wait until spring to start chicks so they don't have to be inside at all. They are cute and fuzzy... but smelly.