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Just been given (in a can't-say-no sort of a way) two tiny chicks. They are supposed to be Buff Orpingtons but as they are brown and yellow I don't think they can be. Another sort of Orpington possibly.
I have very sketchy details as they were delivered to me via a go-between . They look to me to be under a week old but the message I was given is that they have been off the heat lamp for a week. I feel this is unlikely. I am promised that they have been sexed as female but am sceptical.

Anyway, I have them in a large birdcage sitting on a wrapped hot water bottle in a wee house made from an ice cream tub. I've only had incubater hens once before and I managed to smuggle them into a brood with a bantam mummy within days (and had them in a heated propogater the rest of the time!) so I am concerned for these babies. Just how warm do they need to be? I have no heating atm and Devon is wet and miserable. Do you reckon they'll be OK on hot bottles in a sawdust lined cage inside? Tell me I don't need to put them in the hot press

On the plus side, they're very cute

Sorry that I can't offer any advise hun, just wanted to say good luck with your new babies.

Nikki

Thank you They are tweeting away on a fresh water bottle and being v.cute. I do hope they grow up much faster than I remember so I can put them outside with the others soon though!

If they are tweeting away and moving around ok then they're fine. If they start to fluff up and shiver then they're cold. Sounds like they're ok on their hot water bottles. I've brooded under a normal reading lamp before now or in a borrowed electric propagator. In the wild they'd only have part-time access to their mother hen to keep them warm.

Zoe