Power Outage!!!

Today I freaked out about the chicks. Yes, again.

At 3:00pm, I was getting everything together to take Sky to a birthday party. We were ready to go when the power suddenly went out.

It was bad timing, but it was also good timing. If the power had gone out after I'd left and no one had told me, I might have run some errands before picking Sky up and come home an hour and a half later to a pile of frozen chicks!

Then I would have needed therapy.

While they are tiny, chicks have to stay warm. I mean WARM. They prefer a temperature of 90-95 degrees F. It's warm for February here, but 65 degrees doesn't really cut it. Until they are older, the heat lamp is on 24/7 to keep the babies toasty warm.

I gave the chicks a towel to cuddle with and dropped Sky off at the party. When I got home, the chicks were piled on top of each other and chirping like crazy. "WE'RE COLD! WE'RE COLD!" I'm pretty sure that's what they were saying. That, or "WHAT THE CRAP?!?!"

They were so cold! Even Duck (Harper's chick) wasn't running from me, and she's by far the flightiest of the bunch. That really got me worried.

In my freak-out state, I consulted Mike for chick-warming ideas. Mike, in turn, consulted his coworkers. Luckily, we have a gas range and can boil water without electricity in the house! I ended up foraging for stones in the front yard, which I then boiled and wrapped in cleaning cloths. I placed a box in the brooder, then a hot tea kettle wrapped in a towel and a bunch of hot cloth-wrapped stones. The chicks all piled into the box and I draped a towel on top. Voila! Warm chicks!

I reheated the stones once before the power finally kicked back on a 6:30. With the heat lamp working again, the chicks were excited to run around their world. I was relieved, to say the least! The chicks are all chirping and eating and running around under their heat lamp now, happy as ever. Phew!

Everyone needs a Mike. And Mike's coworkers.