Sleeping Chicks

Our chicks were in our house for only a handful of hours before I was searching the internet with a question. Maybe more of a concern. I had read all kinds of books about keeping chickens and most of them had a section on baby chicks. I had read our care instructions several times. Somehow none of my resources had prepared me for sleeping chicks.

Obviously baby chickens have to sleep. And I guessed that much like human babies they slept more often than adults, to do all of the incredible growing that takes place right away. What I wasn't prepared for was how they sleep and how quickly. It seemed to me that the baby chick would be drinking, eating, walking around and then suddenly crash to the ground sprawled out with its head just stretched out flat on the ground .

They often looked dead (kind of scary). But then my husband or I would reach for one to check on it and it would jump up and scurry off. I suppose if these little chicks had a Mamma hen around they would tuck themselves under her to sleep warm and snug, but without a Mamma maybe looking dead while sleeping would be kind of like playing possum. I am not sure. I am however grateful that when I checked on the internet I found that I was not the only concerned new chick parent, others before me had posted this particular concern on chicken forums. I just wish it had been mentioned in the care instructions so my husband and I could have stopped waking up the exhausted chicks!

This post is part of 31 Days- a writing challenge and sixth in my baby chick series!