Baby Chick Bedding Change

The thing about keeping baby chicks inside is you gotta change their bedding. Often. Because they poop. A LOT. And it smells bad.

So, I changed it this morning.

Pictured here is everything we need to keep house chicks:
The brooder box, the metal lid/lamp apparatus, the beer box
(where they are at the moment in this picture), and the feed bag.

Part of the process is moving the chicks into a smaller container so I can get the straw and poop out of the big container.

The chicks hanging out in the beer box whilst waiting to be placed onto fresh straw.

They huddle together into a chicken ball when they're in the beer box. It's dark and cooler with no heat lamp, so I think they all try to do the penguin thing and huddle in the dark to stay warm.

"I'm so confused!"

They all look very confused after I place them back in the brooder. Here's the whole setup:

....and they're standing in their food not 30 seconds after it's back in.

It's so cute listening to the increased peeping while I do this. It only takes about 10 minutes, so it's easy. I think the key is the beer box - they stay in one place, can't fly out, and calm down in the darkness.