How to raise chicks in cold temperatures?

[Ridgerunner]

This thread might help you with some of your worries.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/947046/broody-in-michigan-winter

I never did read that the hen is actually broody. If she is not broody in that tight space she is a threat to the chicks. She could easily kill them instead of keeping them warm.

 

[Blooie]

This thread might help you with some of your worries.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/947046/broody-in-michigan-winter

I never did read that the hen is actually broody. If she is not broody in that tight space she is a threat to the chicks. She could easily kill them instead of keeping them warm.

<massive head slap> Boy, I totally missed that one!

 

[azygous]

The way I read this thread, the OP is presenting us with a hypothetical situation where he plans on raising 15 baby chicks come winter and wants advice on how to provide heat for them.

As far as I can conclude, there is no hen, broody or not, and no baby chicks, either. It's all in the future.

This is what happens when a thread is begun with very sketchy information. We readers tend to fill in what's missing, trying to make it make more sense than it actually does.

This is starting to feel like that old party game, "telephone".

 

[crazi4chix]

Quick question about young chicks outside in the coop.

We have 12 laying hens, a perpetually broody Serama Bantam hen, and a charming little Bantam roo. They have a palatial coop in our yard of several acres. We are in Pacific NW, so fall temps are currently low 70s during the day, mid to high 40s at night.

Our son brought home a three week old Serama chick from a recent poultry swap. We threw together a makeshift brooder in the front part of our coop (separate from hens) and set up the mama heating pad brooder instead of using a heat lamp, as even the red light seemed to be making our roosting hens restless. We then decided this little (hopefully) girl needed some friends, so adopted three, 2 week old large fowl chicks. They had been hand raised inside an apartment WITH a heat lamp...and now we have them outside in coop, with the heat pad cave, but nothing more.

Will this temperature change be too drastic? We can bring them in garage and turn on the heat lamp if necessary. Our heating pad doesn't go to a high setting anymore, just medium, but I can feel warmth in the cave.

Thoughts?

Thank you!

 

[Blooie]

This is is a tough one! It might take a little more diligence on your part to make the new chicks adapt to Mama Heating Pad after 2 weeks under a heat lamp, but I think it can be done. The first thing I think I'd do starts at roosting time. When it gets dark, I'd go out with a dimmed flashlight (I usually rubber band a dark colored washcloth over the lens - gives me enough light to work by but it's not glaring) and tuck all the babies under the pad. Hold your hand in front of it to keep them under. When they start to settle down, you'll hear a soft "churring" sound coming from them. They'll most likely cuddle down all together under there and should go to sleep. In about an hour, if you can do it without disturbing them, check them. In most cases they'll still be under the MHP. If not, you'll have to tuck them in again. Once they figure out that the cave is where the heat is, they'll most likely stay under all night. By the way, if you can turn up the pad a notch, that will help. The older chick will spend more time on top, but the newer ones might appreciate the little extra heat. You can turn it back down in a couple of days.

We had someone on the MHP thread teach her 2 week old chicks to use the pad after a heat lamp, and although they never fully adapted the way new chicks do, they still learned that when they got chilly that's where they could go. Don't be surprised if you find them on top of the pad as much as - if not more than - underneath. By 2 weeks most of my chicks did the same thing. What you have to show them now is where that heat is. I'd keep that set up in the garage if you need to, but remember that then you'll have 3 sets of birds to integrate later - the older girls, the single chick and the new chicks. Should be no issue with the 3 week old and the 2 week old, but the easier you can make it on all of them the better.

Please join us over on the MHP thread so that we don't end up hijacking this thread while we work through this adjustment. Lots of folks over there who have successfully switched chicks over and your experience as you do this might help others in the same situation!

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

 

[lillihen77]

The day this video was taken it was 21 degrees in the run, which is where their brooder pen was set up. Didn't lose a single chick, nor have a stressed or sick chick, out of the three batches raised this way. One night we even had 60 mph winds, sideways snow, and a power outage. They thrived. As @azygous said, they really do well even when it's not so warm out there!

I really like your set up for the little chicks I get so many great ideas from y'all on the BYC forum!! I love it here...I wanna live here