Sleeping on the Job

Backyard Poultry

Naptime - Someone's Peeking!

If there's one thing that all chicks do, it's sleep. It was a matter of minutes after being let go into the brooder before all my chicks were asleep. It was so funny to watch -- they just collapsed in whatever position they happened to be in, spreading out their little wings under the radiance of the heat lamp. They piled onto each other like pillows, sliding down and then jerking their heads up, only to slide down again. The chick that ended up on the bottom would only open its eyes for a second, too tired to move away. I guess they'd been through a lot in their first day of life.

Did you spot the chick peeking in the photo above? That's Birchie, one of the three Easter egg layers we got. 

Three in the (Rock) Bed

What an unusual place to sleep! As the chicks grew, I raised the waterers up higher. Not only were the chicks taller now, but their feet were amazingly adept at shoveling litter into a ground-level water trough. I used flat pieces of cement or rocks to lift up the water containers. Well, every day I had to empty, rinse, and refill the water containers. Of course I left the rocks in the brooder. I wasn't gone more than five minutes, but returned to find three chicks asleep on the rock! I think it must have absorbed the heat lamp's radiance and felt nice and warm to those three little chicks.