BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[NanaKat]

Could use those hunter hand warmers... Wrap one in a wash cloth so the chicks can't sit directly on it. They work for 8 hours....so he needs a supply of them. Our Atwoods has them in a box of 10.

Or run an extension cord thru pic pipe to the coop and hang a brood light.

 

[hellbender]

Could use those hunter hand warmers... Wrap one in a wash cloth so the chicks can't sit directly on it. They work for 8 hours....so he needs a supply of them. Our Atwoods has them in a box of 10.

Or run an extension cord thru pic pipe to the coop and hang a brood light.

I think a light is the best option.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

ok, need some advice from the list. Got a guy on another BYC thread who has day old chicks he wants to keep in a draft free , unheated coop. Temps ranging from 45 to 25 degrees. He wants to know how to keep them warm. I don't think he has hens to help. Anyone?
Thanks,
Karen

There's a (very long) thread called Mama Heating Pad in the brooder, started by a woman in a very cold climate who broods her chicks outside/in an unheated coop very successfully in cold weather by creating a little cave and placing a (non-auto-shut off) heating pad over it - the chicks go under it at night or for a warm up like they would a mama hen. Sort of a DYI version of a panel heater like EcoGlow.

If there's no power or possibility for an extension cord, I suppose he could try a "mama water bottle" - build a little box with supports overhead and swap out hot water bottles over the top. It's described in the old "Keeping poultry and rabbits of scraps" (from 1941) - it's essentially the same idea. You'd just need to be sure the water bottles were changed frequently enough and that they don't leak.

Just some thoughts...

- Ant Farm

 

[MargaretYakoda]

ok, need some advice from the list. Got a guy on another BYC thread who has day old chicks he wants to keep in a draft free , unheated coop. Temps ranging from 45 to 25 degrees. He wants to know how to keep them warm. I don't think he has hens to help. Anyone?
Thanks,
Karen

I was successful with chicks in an unheated coop in 45 degree weather. What I did was make what I called a "wool hen" I used 1 inch wool strips suspended from a hardware cloth frame. This was them placed inside an old styrofoam cooler. The wool strips went to about two inches off the floor. I also lined the floor of the cooler with wool. This was pure wool, not acrylic, harvested from old sweaters. I have a photo of the thing in my sig line. It was easy enough to make, but a little time consuming. I could take better pictures of it for you, but some jerk-wad "borrowed" it and never returned it.

 

[MargaretYakoda]

What about a brooder bucket or box with fleece strips? BYC member Kassaundra has instructions somewhere.

Yes, that's pretty close to the same idea as what I made. And it works nicely.

 

[doubleleft]

ok, need some advice from the list. Got  a guy on another BYC thread who has day old chicks he wants to keep in a draft free , unheated coop. Temps ranging from 45 to 25 degrees. He wants to know how to keep them warm. I don't think he has hens to help. Anyone?
 Thanks,
 Karen

A Good Mother Hen ....... (the way it was intended to be !!)

Or just build a big fire under one end of brooder/cage/pen/etc ...... (lol)

a wood stove/heater in correct location and/or hot water on stove/heater piped into brooder to heat one configured place in brooder .

 

[ocap]

ok, need some advice from the list. Got a guy on another BYC thread who has day old chicks he wants to keep in a draft free , unheated coop. Temps ranging from 45 to 25 degrees. He wants to know how to keep them warm. I don't think he has hens to help. Anyone?
Thanks,
Karen

I seem to remember BYC member Kassaundra using a feather duster

 

[gjensen]

.

 

[cyborg]

.

???

 

[Beer can]

I know the premier heat plate is $$ but I hear it works great, uses much less electric than a heat lamp. Heat lamp bulbs can blow and lose chicks if it's cold unless you run two, more $$, and you have to replace bulbs occasionally anyway. Then there is the risk of fire with heat bulbs, no risk with the brooder plate I hear. A heatlamp keeps them up all night, plate doesn't.
I think a brooder plate would be a good investment, as long as they last years.