Brooding three chicks, help

[LillianMae]

hey guys, so I'm going to be getting chicks this march, and I need some help. I'm only getting three chicks because I don't want a ton of chickens. Their brooder is in the barn and is raised. I'm thinking to insulate them I will have their bedding in a way to keep the nice and close, have a sheet around the sides, and a headlamp fairly close to them. Any other suggestions would be great! Thanks

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

My top tips are clean, dry, draft free, food and water available at all times, and good heat source plus space to get out of the heat of they get too hot. Good ventilation too they can get dusty. Here is a good article on brooding https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/raising-chicks-artificially

Good luck with them when they arrive.

 

[LillianMae]

Thanks! I've brooded chicks before, what I'm asking is help for insulation tips with brooding such a small amount.

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

You could start of small with only having 3 chicks like a tote box or something similar and put that into your brooder you have.Then when they are a little bigger put them in the brooder. When I moved mine out to garage I just put table cloths tied around the outer pen. They were fine and we had below freezing temps. I just made sure they were warm enough under the lamp.

 

[ChickenLegs13]

For a small amount of chicks like that I use a regular 60w house bulb in my brooder lamp, hung about 6 inches off the floor of the brooder cage. I raise or lower it an inch or so until the chicks make a loose little circle under the light. If they pile on top of each other and cheep loudly I know they're cold and I lower the light. If they spread out all over the place I know they're hot and raise the light a bit.
In other words I'm not worried about heating my whole brooder to a certian temperature. They go down to the cold end to eat & drink and go back under the light when they get cold. Much like they do in real life when raised by a real hen.

 

[aart]

If you're just using an incandescent light you can use a dimmer extension cord to adjust the heat output.