.:Rusalka:.
Songster
Hi Everyone!
I just wanted to share my experiences about my no electricity/no heat source brooders, as I would have loved to find something like this when I built mine, so maybe someone could be interested.
In the past I only had around 10 chicks at a time, so it was easy to keep them inside for the first weeks, but now having 50+ at a time, I moved them outside in the ex-bunny stall immediately after everyone got dry. There is no electricity, and no safe way to move it there, so I just didn't use it. Instead I made a cardboard box covered with heat reflecting insulation on the inside, and made a curtain of many lines in the back half of the box of a polar fleece blanket to make something to hide into, and keep more heat. This time it was winter with freezing temperatures outside, and around 2-6°C in the building. I made a ring of cardboard attached to the box, for they don't get lost in the stall until they learn how to find their way back, and I let it there for maybe the first two weeks or less. One thing I learnt is that it makes it very easy to encourage them to enter in the box if you put there a light source, like the bicycle lamp I used, until they learn to use it by themselves. In the nights i put a wire cage piece in front of the door to be sure nobody fell out into the cold. After they grew out the box I gave them a simple cardboard box with no insulation to stay under for the nights, but they already didn't use it in the day, only to hide with some precious bits of food.
This box I could only use two times, after the second group of chicks it got wet already and I decided to get rid of it. This weekend I will start using the new one I built of wood, no floor this time and only a bag of straw as roof, for easier cleaning. (This time they will be a week old, having a lot of rain this week, so it is easier to keep an eye on them inside now. They're in an uninsulated cardboard box 60x40cm made to be about chick height when closed, only having a door cut open for them, and they're already not using it at day 5, only to sleep. It's connected to an open box with their food and water in it. )
The original box I tested in small also, this time inside the house (with room temperature 15-20 °C) made of the box of a decoration lamp, housing six chicks, two of them special care, and it works just as fine, even without the heat reflecting insulation.
As I see, chicks grown up this way get used to outside temperatures a lot faster, being comfortable at room temperature after a week, and comfortable in 2-6°C in just about 3 weeks. After the first days (when I had the 5 weakest chicks dying) I had not much deaths, maybe one or two of the 50 in the middle of winter. (The second time I used eggs of a farm close to here, and the eggs of my group, and actually all but one chicks of that farm died in the first weeks one after the other for no visible reason, leaving ours alone, still growing up in the brooder.)
My chicks are old hungarians and transilvanian-hungarian mixes, I don't have experience with other breeds, but I don't think they could be significantly different in this.
I just wanted to share my experiences about my no electricity/no heat source brooders, as I would have loved to find something like this when I built mine, so maybe someone could be interested.
In the past I only had around 10 chicks at a time, so it was easy to keep them inside for the first weeks, but now having 50+ at a time, I moved them outside in the ex-bunny stall immediately after everyone got dry. There is no electricity, and no safe way to move it there, so I just didn't use it. Instead I made a cardboard box covered with heat reflecting insulation on the inside, and made a curtain of many lines in the back half of the box of a polar fleece blanket to make something to hide into, and keep more heat. This time it was winter with freezing temperatures outside, and around 2-6°C in the building. I made a ring of cardboard attached to the box, for they don't get lost in the stall until they learn how to find their way back, and I let it there for maybe the first two weeks or less. One thing I learnt is that it makes it very easy to encourage them to enter in the box if you put there a light source, like the bicycle lamp I used, until they learn to use it by themselves. In the nights i put a wire cage piece in front of the door to be sure nobody fell out into the cold. After they grew out the box I gave them a simple cardboard box with no insulation to stay under for the nights, but they already didn't use it in the day, only to hide with some precious bits of food.
This box I could only use two times, after the second group of chicks it got wet already and I decided to get rid of it. This weekend I will start using the new one I built of wood, no floor this time and only a bag of straw as roof, for easier cleaning. (This time they will be a week old, having a lot of rain this week, so it is easier to keep an eye on them inside now. They're in an uninsulated cardboard box 60x40cm made to be about chick height when closed, only having a door cut open for them, and they're already not using it at day 5, only to sleep. It's connected to an open box with their food and water in it. )
The original box I tested in small also, this time inside the house (with room temperature 15-20 °C) made of the box of a decoration lamp, housing six chicks, two of them special care, and it works just as fine, even without the heat reflecting insulation.
As I see, chicks grown up this way get used to outside temperatures a lot faster, being comfortable at room temperature after a week, and comfortable in 2-6°C in just about 3 weeks. After the first days (when I had the 5 weakest chicks dying) I had not much deaths, maybe one or two of the 50 in the middle of winter. (The second time I used eggs of a farm close to here, and the eggs of my group, and actually all but one chicks of that farm died in the first weeks one after the other for no visible reason, leaving ours alone, still growing up in the brooder.)
My chicks are old hungarians and transilvanian-hungarian mixes, I don't have experience with other breeds, but I don't think they could be significantly different in this.
