BROODER HELP!

[Ramblin Rooster]

I'm going to be hatching two dozen chicks, and I'm building them a brooder. We aren't going to be able to keep them in the basement because 7 chicks was dusty so 24 will be a nightmare, so I was thinking the garage or barn. Both get fairly cold, so that wouldn't work right?

 

[grullablue]

I've always kept the chicks in my unheated (but insulated) garage. It can still get wicked cold in there, but I always kept a top over the "brooder" to hold the heat in, and my thermometer, and the chicks, let me know it was just right. Even in below 0 temps. My "brooder" is an old, leaky metal water tank with a custom cut hinged plywood lid, with a "window" in it for ventilation. When it was real cold, I just covered up half of the window.

 

[Ridgerunner]

A broody hen does not heat up the entire universe for her chicks. She provides a safe place for them to warm up when they need to. You don’t have to heat up the universe, just provide a warm place for them to warm up.

I have no idea what you mean by “fairly cold”. Does water freeze? If so, it needs to be warm enough to keep it thawed. Exactly like Grullablue said, you can cover a portion where the food and water is to help hold in the heat, and make that near the heat source, but you don’t have to keep it tropical. Just observe them. The first two or three days they’ll probably stick pretty close to the heat source but somewhere around the third or fourth day they should start roaming a little. Let their behavior be your guide. Many people would be shocked to see what the chicks will decide if given a choice.

They’ll feather out faster and be healthier if they can play in cool as well as warm places.

 

[Stewarts]

It will work if you use a heat lamp that you maintain at 95 F and make sure there are no drafts. If they get too cold they could sicken and die. I used a heat lamp that I had close into the brooder to start with and I let my chicks tell me when it was just right. If the chicks are piling onto one another, they are too cold and in piling on each other they could crush the ones at the bottom and you will have dead chicks. If they are too hot, they will move as far from the lamp as they can get. So you will be able to adjust the lamp according to how the chicks react. You will have to check on them quite often if you are having them in the garage or barn, especially with new hatching's.