Coop Brooding vs Indoor

[Blooie]

Thank you Azygous! Your article was actually the one that got me interested in outdoor brooding! I kind of feel like I am talking to a legend!! LOL

Hey - I wanna be a legend too!! Can I be a legend, pretty please? @azygous is one of my favorite people, so I'd fit right in!

Edited to add: And as I was typing another favorite people popped in, @lazy gardener ! TabbyKat, you'll notice that all three of us are huge advocates for the heating pad cave way of raising these little stinkers. I know I'll never brood indoors or with a heat lamp ever again!

 

[lazy gardener]

Hey Blooie!!!!

 

[Blooie]

Hey, LG!

Looks like someone else is excited to try brooding outdoors, doesn't it? Think we ought to have her wander over to the Mama Heating Thread and check it out? How about it, @TabbyKat70

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/956958/mama-heating-pad-in-the-brooder-picture-heavy-update

Love you have you join us!!

 

[lazy gardener]

Tabby, don't get too scared if you go over there!

 

[azygous]

This thread is crawling with legends!

Proceed at your own risk.

 

[TabbyKat70]

Hey - I wanna be a legend too!! Can I be a legend, pretty please? @azygous is one of my favorite people, so I'd fit right in!

Edited to add: And as I was typing another favorite people popped in, @lazy gardener ! TabbyKat, you'll notice that all three of us are huge advocates for the heating pad cave way of raising these little stinkers. I know I'll never brood indoors or with a heat lamp ever again!

Blooie, you ARE a legend! I read your outdoor brooding link like @azygous recommended and already have started designing my heating pad cave!! LOL I was SO not liking the idea of brooding them inside, partly to do with very little space to do so (1100 sqft house and four people), plus I have 3 cats and a Rottie who provide me with all the dust and pet hair I could ever want.

@lazy gardener , I'm definitely not scared LOL with all this attention from the legends, I will happily be a outdoor brooding minion!

Thank ya'll so much!

 

[MichiganSilkie]

I brooded my first batch of chicks indoors, the dust was absolutely incredible. Who would have thought such cute little chicks can stir up so much dust? The second batch I brooded in their own little heated "condo" in the coop outside over the early summer. They did great out there and spared me from the dust!

 

[shawn54]

Our 4-h leader keeps his chicks in a cardboard ring with two foot sides in a shed open top starting in late March in pa I can't believe he doesn't lose any of them.

 

[shawn54]

I just got my boy's 4-h turkeys today put them in my box outside its 26 degrees and last I checked them they were laying about 6" apart so they're toasty warm.

 

[teria]

I've been brooding 6 chicks in the outdoor chicken coop in a makeshift pen with an ecobrooder for heat. They are three weeks old and don't use the brooder anymore even though our temps are down to freezing or near it most nights. They are feathered in and loving life. I keep the side of the pen open now that everybody is aquainted and the chicks run in and out of the pen all day long. They're fat and healthy, and very normal chicks. I felt better about not using a heat lamp in my coop mostly due to fire hazard from those awful things. The chicks started in the coop after the first 24 hours in an indoor brooder box with the eco brooder. They acclimated to the outside temps and seemed to feather in faster.

I have two chicks going out to the outdoor coop tomorrow, with their eco brooder and I expect they will do just as well. For now they are in a brooder box in front of a southeast facing window. The only time they are under the ecobrooder is when they sleep. They are about two and a half weeks old and are feathering out nicely.

My youngest two are just in their first 24 hours home, and have their ecobrooder in a separate brooder box but in the same window. So far, they are happy, and just chirp softly.

I brooded three other batches of chicks using a heat lamp, and they were so dependent on it that I didn't dare not have it on right up until they were 6 weeks old. It always freaked me out that a fire could so easily start, and I wondered how a mama hen could brood chicks out in a chicken coop or barn and still be able to leave them to eat and drink and stretch her legs. It makes more sense now that I see how a more natural set up works so much better. The chicks use the ecobrooders like a mama hen, only scrambling beneath it to warm up and to sleep. Otherwise, they would rather be running around like maniacs.