Brooding chicks outside in the south Georgia heat?

[jphendrix]

I have been brooding my chicks inside since I started a couple months ago. I have a small place and really don't have room to brood in the house. I want to have a brooder outside, but the one thing I am really worried about it the heat in the summer time. It gets in the 100's. Can I house them in an outdoor brooder with temps getting that high? If so any suggestions on building one?

 

[TLWR]

Just make sure there is plenty of air flow as well as a way to prevent winds from getting directly to them when little.
Round 1 ducks were in a brooder (great dane sized dog kennel with tyvek wrap around the bottom edges to keep out winds, but kept the top open to allow for air flow. Ducklings arrived in early August in southern alabama - so hot.

 

[Ridgerunner]

You are right to be concerned. Heat can be dangerous. I brood in my coop instead of the house. Last summer I turned the heat off during the day at day 2 and overnight heat off at day 5 during our heat wave. During colder weather I might leave the heat on day and night for 5 weeks.

My suggestions. Build it fairly big with the thought that you can provide heat at one end especially at night but that they can get away from it if it is too warm. Like TLWR said, give them draft protection but provide lots of ventilation up high.

I suggest putting it in the shade somehow, maybe inside another building with really great ventilation but definitely in the shade. Keep rain out of it so they don’t get wet.

Then watch them, including at night. If they are crowding the far ends of the brooder away from the heat source they are too warm. Reduce the wattage of the bulb or turn the heat off totally, depending how they are acting. You’ll have to use your own judgment on that.

 

[jphendrix]

Thank you! I will do some checking online to give me some ideas for a summer brooder outside. I want my babies to be healthy, and not to hot or to cold.