One of the biggest challenges of raising chicks is figuring out how to brood them without stinking up your house or killing the chicks from exposure. Mother hens can effectively hatch and raise chicks out of doors even in the dead of winter. The chicks run out from under mom to get food and water and run back underneath her to warm back up before venturing forth once again. These chicks become acclimated to cold weather and are hardier than standard brooder raised chicks.
So, the question is, how can we best imitate nature while raising chicks without losing them to cold. The answer, heating plates, specifically Premier 1 heating plates. Heating plates are meant to mimic a mother hen by giving the chicks a place to get warm while exposing them to the environment. There are other brands of heating plates out there, the top one being Brinsea, but I would caution you to look at the usable temperature range for those systems. Brinsea heating plates are meant to work at ambient temps no lower 50-55 degrees (F). This means it is designed to work best indoors or at least in a moderately heated/insulated space. I've had my Premier 1 plates work perfectly in an unheated, uninsulated coop in the teens and 20s (degrees F). For outdoor brooding. You don't want it to get much below freezing since there is less wind protection than in a coop (even if it is unheated and uninsulated).
Note: I ALWAYS recommend getting the plastic dome cover for your heating plate. If you don't, the chicks will climb/sleep/play all over it and that means poop all over it too. If you don't want to spend the extra money for the fitted dome, you can cover it with press-and-seal plastic wrap.
Note: With a hard sided bin, it is important to make sure the chicks can get out from under the plate on the low side. If they can't get out past the low side, the other chicks can cram in and suffocate the ones in the back.
My outdoor brooding system is a two phase system.
Phase One - Tote brooder on a deck (day 1 - 2 weeks+)
Once my chicks have hatched, dried, and are walking well, I move them into the tote brooder on my deck (if coming from a hatchery and not my incubator, I put them straight into the tote). I keep the tote under a table and keep a hardware cloth lid on top to allow for light and airflow. On nice, sunny days, I move the brooder closer to the deck railing to allow the chicks to get sunlight. On colder nights I throw a blanket or towel over the tote and put the screen on top to hold in heat and keep out drafts.
In the brooder I have a rabbit water bottle, a heater plate, a feeder, and I bed with wood chips. I keep chicks in here until they are at least a week old, longer if they are struggling. A good rule of thumb is, I move them to phase 2 when they are twice the size of a freshly hatched chick. The number of chicks you can keep in this system is really dependent on the size heater plate you have. I have a small heater plate (12" x 12") and that will work best with 3-20 chicks a week old or younger. I wouldn't do any fewer than 3 chicks because the chicks pack in and help keep each other warm.
Phase Two (With Heat)- Tote with heating plate in a wire tractor (1 week - feathered out)
Once my chicks have outgrown the brooder. I move them into this setup. A 5' x 5' PVC tractor with a Rubbermaid tote house that we close up at night and latch with a hasp. As you can see, even though it is in the mid-40s and rainy today, the chicks (who are 1 to 3 weeks old) are outside, eating, and enjoying the grass. I also have a feed bag shade secured to the wire top of the tractor with zip ties to provide shade throughout the day. Note: make sure to move them to this system on a warmer/sunny day and make sure they know how to get into the tote to get warm and out of the tote to get food and water. If they start huddling outside and making distressed peeping noises, they need to be shoved under the heater plate to show them where to get warm.
To provide power to the heating plate, I run an outdoor power cord to the tote.
And I plug that into the heating plate, which takes up most of the space in the tote.
One thing that is important when using a heater plate is to have one end of the heating plate low (back), and one end higher (front). This allows the chicks to pick what height is comfortable for them to warm up. I do this with the heater plate in the tote brooder as well.
When the chicks need to get warm again, they can go up the ramp/door and get into the tote and under heating plate. Even though this is the large size plate (16" x 24") that is sized for 100 chicks, I wouldn't use it in this setup for anything more than 30 for several reasons.
Phase Two (Without Heat)- Tote in a wire tractor (2+ weeks - feathered out)
Once the nighttime temps remain above the upper 50s - low 60s (F), I found that the heater plate kept the interior of the tote too hot both day and night. Since I stagger hatch, I almost always have older chicks that have been hardened off to help keep younger chicks warm at night. If you get 10-30 chicks in a tote at night when the door is shut, their little bodies really heat up the interior of the enclosure. I've only lost 2-3 chicks and keets when moving them out to the unheated box at 2 weeks when there are bigger birds to help warm the younger ones. If you only have one age group of chicks and you only have one heater plate, you could wait until 3-4 weeks to move them out to the wire tractor full time without heat so they are a little more hardened off.
Variations on this system
Early introduction to the flock - If your electric cord can reach to the field/paddock/run where you keep your main flock or you are going without heat, you can use the phase two brooder in the pen/paddock with your adult birds. This is a good way to introduce the chicks to the flock without worrying about the adults hurting the chicks. When they are big enough to introduce to the flock, you can have them spend the morning in the run eating their food, safe from the adult birds and allow them to range with the adults in the afternoons.
Using a broody - I have also used my phase two system as a broody containment unit, so she can be with the flock while sitting on eggs and raising her chicks. After the first week of the chick's lives, I feed them in the pen in the morning and let them out with the flock in the afternoon (keeping a careful eye on things for the first couple days). With a mother, the chicks generally do well in a flock setting because mama flogs anyone who attacks her babies.
In a coop - If you don't have a handy place to put a tote brooder and run like I have, you can also do traditional indoor brooding for a week and then move the chicks into their permanent coop if the weather is generally above freezing. On good days, take the chicks out on grass with a heat source and a place to get in the shade if necessary.
In a coop with adult birds - Other people have already written extensively about this, but my current setup doesn't allow me to release my chicks with the flock until they are big enough to not get through my poultry netting fence. Here are two really good articles about this. They both use the Mama Heating Pad system, but you can certainly substitute the Premier 1 heating plate for the MHP. These two ladies cover the subject so well, that I can't add anything about the topic.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...and-start-raising-your-chicks-outdoors.71995/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/yes-you-certainly-can-brood-chicks-outdoors.68067/
So, the question is, how can we best imitate nature while raising chicks without losing them to cold. The answer, heating plates, specifically Premier 1 heating plates. Heating plates are meant to mimic a mother hen by giving the chicks a place to get warm while exposing them to the environment. There are other brands of heating plates out there, the top one being Brinsea, but I would caution you to look at the usable temperature range for those systems. Brinsea heating plates are meant to work at ambient temps no lower 50-55 degrees (F). This means it is designed to work best indoors or at least in a moderately heated/insulated space. I've had my Premier 1 plates work perfectly in an unheated, uninsulated coop in the teens and 20s (degrees F). For outdoor brooding. You don't want it to get much below freezing since there is less wind protection than in a coop (even if it is unheated and uninsulated).
Note: I ALWAYS recommend getting the plastic dome cover for your heating plate. If you don't, the chicks will climb/sleep/play all over it and that means poop all over it too. If you don't want to spend the extra money for the fitted dome, you can cover it with press-and-seal plastic wrap.
Note: With a hard sided bin, it is important to make sure the chicks can get out from under the plate on the low side. If they can't get out past the low side, the other chicks can cram in and suffocate the ones in the back.
My outdoor brooding system is a two phase system.
Phase One - Tote brooder on a deck (day 1 - 2 weeks+)
Once my chicks have hatched, dried, and are walking well, I move them into the tote brooder on my deck (if coming from a hatchery and not my incubator, I put them straight into the tote). I keep the tote under a table and keep a hardware cloth lid on top to allow for light and airflow. On nice, sunny days, I move the brooder closer to the deck railing to allow the chicks to get sunlight. On colder nights I throw a blanket or towel over the tote and put the screen on top to hold in heat and keep out drafts.
In the brooder I have a rabbit water bottle, a heater plate, a feeder, and I bed with wood chips. I keep chicks in here until they are at least a week old, longer if they are struggling. A good rule of thumb is, I move them to phase 2 when they are twice the size of a freshly hatched chick. The number of chicks you can keep in this system is really dependent on the size heater plate you have. I have a small heater plate (12" x 12") and that will work best with 3-20 chicks a week old or younger. I wouldn't do any fewer than 3 chicks because the chicks pack in and help keep each other warm.
Phase Two (With Heat)- Tote with heating plate in a wire tractor (1 week - feathered out)
Once my chicks have outgrown the brooder. I move them into this setup. A 5' x 5' PVC tractor with a Rubbermaid tote house that we close up at night and latch with a hasp. As you can see, even though it is in the mid-40s and rainy today, the chicks (who are 1 to 3 weeks old) are outside, eating, and enjoying the grass. I also have a feed bag shade secured to the wire top of the tractor with zip ties to provide shade throughout the day. Note: make sure to move them to this system on a warmer/sunny day and make sure they know how to get into the tote to get warm and out of the tote to get food and water. If they start huddling outside and making distressed peeping noises, they need to be shoved under the heater plate to show them where to get warm.
To provide power to the heating plate, I run an outdoor power cord to the tote.
And I plug that into the heating plate, which takes up most of the space in the tote.
One thing that is important when using a heater plate is to have one end of the heating plate low (back), and one end higher (front). This allows the chicks to pick what height is comfortable for them to warm up. I do this with the heater plate in the tote brooder as well.
When the chicks need to get warm again, they can go up the ramp/door and get into the tote and under heating plate. Even though this is the large size plate (16" x 24") that is sized for 100 chicks, I wouldn't use it in this setup for anything more than 30 for several reasons.
- The plate is sized for 100 newly hatched chicks. These chicks are larger.
- With the angle, it would be hard for more chicks to keep warm effectively
Phase Two (Without Heat)- Tote in a wire tractor (2+ weeks - feathered out)
Once the nighttime temps remain above the upper 50s - low 60s (F), I found that the heater plate kept the interior of the tote too hot both day and night. Since I stagger hatch, I almost always have older chicks that have been hardened off to help keep younger chicks warm at night. If you get 10-30 chicks in a tote at night when the door is shut, their little bodies really heat up the interior of the enclosure. I've only lost 2-3 chicks and keets when moving them out to the unheated box at 2 weeks when there are bigger birds to help warm the younger ones. If you only have one age group of chicks and you only have one heater plate, you could wait until 3-4 weeks to move them out to the wire tractor full time without heat so they are a little more hardened off.
Variations on this system
Early introduction to the flock - If your electric cord can reach to the field/paddock/run where you keep your main flock or you are going without heat, you can use the phase two brooder in the pen/paddock with your adult birds. This is a good way to introduce the chicks to the flock without worrying about the adults hurting the chicks. When they are big enough to introduce to the flock, you can have them spend the morning in the run eating their food, safe from the adult birds and allow them to range with the adults in the afternoons.
Using a broody - I have also used my phase two system as a broody containment unit, so she can be with the flock while sitting on eggs and raising her chicks. After the first week of the chick's lives, I feed them in the pen in the morning and let them out with the flock in the afternoon (keeping a careful eye on things for the first couple days). With a mother, the chicks generally do well in a flock setting because mama flogs anyone who attacks her babies.
In a coop - If you don't have a handy place to put a tote brooder and run like I have, you can also do traditional indoor brooding for a week and then move the chicks into their permanent coop if the weather is generally above freezing. On good days, take the chicks out on grass with a heat source and a place to get in the shade if necessary.
In a coop with adult birds - Other people have already written extensively about this, but my current setup doesn't allow me to release my chicks with the flock until they are big enough to not get through my poultry netting fence. Here are two really good articles about this. They both use the Mama Heating Pad system, but you can certainly substitute the Premier 1 heating plate for the MHP. These two ladies cover the subject so well, that I can't add anything about the topic.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...and-start-raising-your-chicks-outdoors.71995/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/yes-you-certainly-can-brood-chicks-outdoors.68067/
