my barn is heated to 40 degress in the winter. i don't want to turn it up because i can't have the horses drop their winter fur. it is heated basically to keep the water from freezing. nothing worse then frozen buckets and bottles. i have used one of these crates of craigslist as a brooder. i will have a 250 watt heatlamp on them(i think if not too hot). i have cut an additional for vent holes in them. my question is when can baby chickes go out into there? when can baby chicks go out into coop with others? i have a wall to seperate them from the big ones. also will be putting a heatlamp bulb in there. i am in ny and temps this week are high 40 and low 20. i could put the brooder in the basement no problem, except my dh doesn't want them in the house.... o and i also have a standing stall that is a coop area. right now my faverolles are in there to keep them safe from the bullies. i have chicks from this weekend and some hatching weekly for the next couple weeks. btw, i have some quail to move to the barn also, when can they go? here is a pic of brooder crate. (they were ten bucks, i bought eight of them! brooder, rabbit cages, quail, small coop for tractor. great buy) the vent holes are just like these just added a couple lower down where the chicks would be. the top i had dh add wire to hold heatlamp. 26" high x 39" long x 33" width. set on 3 3" skids. thanks guys again for all your help. my chickens thank you for helping me help them
IF you can keep the chicks warm enough to where they do not huddle up in a corner and smother each other, you can put them out in the brooder at any age. This could be achieved by the raising and lowering of the heat lamp. Keeping in mind that making sure the lamp is secured. Keeping a few chicks warm will not be worth burning down your barn and loosing them plus your horses and other chickens inside. The "trick" to putting chickens in with each other is to have them familiar with each other. This is best achieved by having the newer ones isolated to where they can not be attacked by the older ones but visible and in close proximity. Some (I do too) place the new chicks in cages and place them in the coop/run so the others can mingle with them for about a week. This helps with the introducing process. However, it does NOT keep them from pecking the newly added ones. The establishment of the pecking order is going to happen, regardless of how much you try to introduce them into the flock without hassel. edited to add...I like the brooder boxes and the price was right!
A number of others have purchased little digital thermometers that are sold for greenhouse operations. They have realy come way down in price I bought one a few years ago for about 25 bucks. I don't know what they cost now. These can be set up in the brooder outside and the temperature conviently monitered from within the house. They can even be set to read out the days high and low temps. You could get one of these, set up your brooding light (heat) setup for a few nights and tweak it until you have it about right. Then you don't have to just guess.
