Do I really have to keep chicks in brooder for 6 weeks?

[Larrycauna]

I got 13 chicks this year and most of them are going on 2 weeks this weekend. They are getting crowded in the bin I've been keeping them in in the mud room so I'm thinking of a good next step... garage w newspaper and maybe baby pool? I've seen lots of posts on baby chicks in small brooders but hardly anything on how to manage them when they are 2-6 weeks.

Do I really have I keep them in the garage for 6 weeks if it's warm outside? I feel like they are going to get so bored and it will be a huge mess.

Anyone have a better solution?

Thank you!

 

[MROO]

Screens don't work at our house, either. Try an extended baby gate. It's a lot heavier. and can even support the weight of our self-appointed baby-sitter - the cat! He's not really allowed in that room - and the one time he had accidental access to the chicks, he let them crawl all over him - but who wants to take that chance?

 

[mustangsallee]

After reading this my older ones are off to the coop. Yes they are flying to the edge of brooder. so funny to watch. thank you

 

[Larrycauna]

I got 13 chicks this year and most of them are going on 2 weeks this weekend. They are getting crowded in the bin I've been keeping them in in the mud room so I'm thinking of a good next step... garage w newspaper and maybe baby pool? I've seen lots of posts on baby chicks in small brooders but hardly anything on how to manage them when they are 2-6 weeks.

Do I really have I keep them in the garage for 6 weeks if it's warm outside? I feel like they are going to get so bored and it will be a huge mess.

Anyone have a better solution?

Thank you!

I got 4 EE and kept them in the house for three weeks. I put them in the coop with a single Amercauna who was not yet 18 months old. I also kept a heat lamp in the coop. The Amercauna took to them like a duck to water and gathered them in a nesting box. She was like a mother hen and watched over them everyday. It was fun for the whole family and the chicks have grown into healthy egg layers.

 

[TheDirtyLawyer]

Most people definitely do not keep chicks inside, at least not in my experience. But I am from the deep south where it's warm most of the year (usually). There are essentially 5 stages for my birds:

1. from incubator to rest bin, which is a Rubbermaid bin with paper towels inside of a dog cage wrapped in poultry wire. It's outside but on our front porch, with a very close heat lamp. If you buy chicks from a store or shipped to you, skip this step. It's just for delicate little hatchlings to adjust.

2. From rest bin to brooder. I have a small coop we use for chicks that came from like a TSC. The top which is the "roost" is used as our brooder, and we wire it off so they can't go down the ramp to the bottom. They stay up here for 3-4 weeks when the weather is warm, with the light gradually moving away from them and panels open on the side to let light and breeze though.

3. From brooder top to chick condo bottom floor: this means they move from it the warmer top floor to the bottom, where it's half wrapped in Visquine and otherwise open air. This allows us to make sure they're adjusting to the outside temps and conditions okay, or if they need to stay up in the brooder for awhile. They are here until 5 weeks.

4. From condo to large coop, in a dog kennel. They're here for a week to reset their home status to the grownup coop.

5. Free range! At 6 weeks the dog kennel is removed and the chicks begin to free range with the adults. They'll go back with them at night to the grownup coop, which is good because by now their old condo is occupied with the next round of chicks.

If you live in cold temps or its winter months, I might delay each stage, especially the final two, a little longer until they were feathered out and okay to be more exposed. But where we live is so warm, that's often not needed unless it's December or January. And the numerous steps help us prevent rapid transitions, shock, illness, pecking, etc. Took us awhile to iron it out but it works great for us now!

Thank you! Coop isn't read but I'm wondering if I could do more daytime outside and then use a heating pad in a little duck house we built last year for night time since it's warmer now. I'm in NC. I've never used a heating pad. That seems like a reasonable way to make it warm enough at night.

 

[Blooie]

A word of caution... a heating pad won't heat anything. It doesn't work by heating the environment - it works by warming the chicks by having it right at back level and only warms them directly, not any of the area around them. The floor of the heating pad cave doesn't even get warm by typical brooding standards - it averages 82-85 under there, a far cry from the experts' recommendations of "95 the first week, 90 the second, 85 the third" and so on. Those of us who use it don't even rely on those charts or on thermometers.

If your chicks are 2 weeks old and have NOT been raised with a heating pad system, they might not "get it." Now, some do, granted, but not enough for me to run around claiming that chicks of all ages will instantly accept and understand it. It might not work for your older chicks. It stinks, but that's the simple truth of it and none of us who use Mama Heating Pad want to make any false claims about it. By 4 weeks old my chicks are totally off all heat anyway, even outside in temperatures of 20 degrees and even lower. They have been on Mama Heating Pad since day one, they know how to self-regulate, they have acclimated to ambient temperatures gradually on their own, and they are totally comfortable with natural day/night cycles, never having even had any light but natural sunlight.

I don't have the perfect solution for you. Other folks with more experience and knowledge than I have can chime in and help with that. I just didn't want you to put 2 week old chicks out there with a warming device they've never experienced, counting on it to warm the entire space, and have something bad happen. What I will say is that you can try it during the day. Put it in there and then kind of tuck them under it and hold your hands in front of it until they settle down and realize that it's warm there. You may have to do that a few times to see if they'll start going under on their own. If they do, then at night, tuck them all in, make sure they are safe from predators and comfortable, and then try to get some sleep. But I certainly won't tell you to just stick them out there with an unfamiliar source of heat and leave them to their own devices.

Good luck, and my apologies if I've muddied up the waters here. I just don't want to make any absolute claims for Mama Heating Pad. It works, it's fantastic, but it's not a miracle either.

 

[bruceha2000]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/mama-heating-pad-in-the-brooder-picture-heavy-update.956958

There is no reason to keep chicks in a brooder to 6 weeks of age. They won't stay there unless forced to do so anyway. Most will be fully feathered by 4 weeks and not need any supplemental heat.

Mine are raised outside after a couple of days like @Blooie does. Their brooder area is inside the main coop and they have access to the barn alley (the chickens' indoor run) from the first day they are outside.

This is the brooder space in the coop. These are the 2017 chicks. They had a MHP cave since I didn't have a broody hen (best laid plans of mice and Bruce gone awry).


This picture is from 2015, Zorra was broody and raised these girls I got from Meyer. I think they are about 1 week old here. Zorra is one of the twelve 2012 girls, my first chickens. They were raised indoors for 3.5 weeks in a bathtub with a heat lamp. They were pretty traumatized when they were taken out and put in the 10'x12' stall converted to a coop. Hung out in a pile in the corner. Chicks raised outside in the coop and run do not get traumatized like that, everything is "as it has always been", they slowly expand their "play" area and learn to be chickens either with help from a foster mother or on their own.

 

[Puffy Fluffy Silkies]

I like to take my chicks outside during the afternoon (they are currently 2 weeks). Once they have all their feathers I let them live outside permanently.

 

[happyfrenchman]

Yes.... the first round of chicks, I kept in an enclosure with the heat and all...... now, as soon as they have feathers they go out with the big birds. The big birds don't bother them. They don't need the heat once they have feathers. If you cannot put them in the coop, you could at least arrange something easier and less maintenance intensive.

 

[Chickycammy]

I put my chicks and ducks out at 4 weeks of age. We have a huge coop and run that's all for the babies until they're ready to head in with the adults. It's pretty cold here at night but I have a heating lamp in the coop where they all can run in and stay warm at night. Once it's warmer at night we'll take that away.