Early chick integration

[dbounds10]

Ok! Thank you so so much! I will reach out again in a few days!

 

[rural mouse]

I used a heating pad with no auto shut off. Dropped it over a curve of hardware cloth to provide some stability/ allow for going under it. Covered the whole thing so I can take the cover off and wash it.

Modified a storage tote so adults could hop on it (they would anyway). Blocked the main entrance, but left the hole ( up towards the top of the back) for the plug alone. Babies went in as soon as they came from the incubator at about 2 days old. Took them 2 days to figure out how to get out. That's when I opened the main door (pictured). The adults raised the babies who could escape into the tote. Night temps at the time: 40sF. Daytime highs: 60sF. At about 2 weeks, they started trying to pile into a nest box at night (boxes above the tote). Moved the heating pad into their chosen nest box and then onto the end of a roost when they wanted to move there.

Heat and escape options were available.

 

[dbounds10]

I have had very good luck with getting them into the flock in a week at the age of 3-4 weeks.

Instead of using heat, I use insulation. I have a what I call a wooly hen, which is a box with thick wool padding on top. It is about 5 inches high on the outside, and three inches high on the inside. Chicks can get into it and out of it, on two sides.

I turn the heat lamp off at night. Then the first night or so - encourage then to go under the wooly hen. As the heat goes off, there is a lot of peeping. As they get settled in the dark, under the wooly hen, there is silence. They sleep all night. I checked with a thermometer and it was above 95 degrees in there. I do this the night I bring them home. I set them up in the garage, and have the heat lamp on during the day. But I shut it off at night.

I have the wooly hen in a dog crate. So they home to the crate and 'hen'. Then I take them down to the hen run, and set it up so that the chicks have a safe zone that the hens can't get into. I feed them in there, and they can go into the wooly hen if needed. At night they naturally go into the wooly hen, I close the door and place it in the coop, in the morning I carry it back out.

Day 3, I lift the barrier so that the chicks can get out into the run, and retreat to the safety zone as needed. I have a pallet up, not too far away, on low bricks - another safety zone where chicks can get out of reach of a hen.

Night 5 - I carry the dog crate into the coop, and leave it open. Usually by the next morning, they are out in the run with the hens by morning when I get down there.

One or more times of moving the crate, and then they figure where it is in the coop, and they go there themselves at dark, I do have ground floor door to the coop.

Works easy peasy for me. No heat lamps and no worries of fire.

Mrs K

@Mrs. K Do you have pics of your Wooly hen and run? That’s sounds intriguing but I’m such a visual person it would help me to see it. How do you attach the wool to the top and what keeps the hens from pecking it all off and eating/pooping on it?

 

[Mrs. K]

I posted this a couple of years ago.https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/a-little-different-way-of-adding-chicks.1521710/#post-25629753

My wooly hen is 4 inch wool pom poms made by winding wool yard around a four inch square and tying them in the middle. I glued them to the top of the box thickly with just a hot glue gun.

The first time I used this, once or twice, I had a chick get a leg caught in there, which I freed with no injury. So I tied a white dishtowel around it, and now the wool pompoms are like stuffing inside, the chicks just can't get twisted in a single yarn strand. Really any thick light weight pillow stuffing would work.

Mrs K

 

[dbounds10]

Gonna post this here so anyone chiming in can see what's already been discussed.

@rosemarythyme I can run an extension cord to the coop. And I can also start weaning them off heat in the shop asap. I will remove the brooder plate and turn off the heater in the shop and at that point they would only have the heat lamp. I have chicken wire and zip ties coming out my ears.

 

[dbounds10]

Ok, so let's work on getting them off heat first. Integration will come after so that way you know they can stay out during days without issue.

Reason I asked is because I think it'd be simpler to just section off a corner of the run than to worry about moving the brooder around due to weather and such.

This is a really sloppy version of what I'm talking about, the chicken wire here was only left up for about 2 hours so I didn't bother securing it to the fence or anything. But basically if you can twist tie the ends of some chicken wire to your run fence, then you have a chick area that you can easily adjust as far as size and such.
View attachment 3759675

Terrible edit, but you could just stretch the chicken wire across one corner of the run (hot pink lines on left) like so. You might need a piece as a "lid" too BTW, depending on how tall your wire is. Put a box or bucket on its side as well, held down by bricks, and that'll give them a bit of wind shelter if it's needed:
View attachment 3759677

But what about at night? I just put them in the coop with everyone else? I’m afraid they would murdered in the morning lol. Here is their current feather development

 

[dbounds10]

Ok, I removed the brooding plate and turned off one of the window unit heaters in the shop. It will get colder in there tonight then they are used to but still have one heater on and the lamp in the brooder. The shop is 30 ft wide and 40 ft tall and metal so it gets cold in there. I really appreciate your help! How gradual do I remove heat sources? Not cold turkey right?

 

[Leatherworker]

Ok, I removed the brooding plate and turned off one of the window unit heaters in the shop. It will get colder in there tonight then they are used to but still have one heater on and the lamp in the brooder. The shop is 30 ft wide and 40 ft tall and metal so it gets cold in there. I really appreciate your help! How gradual do I remove heat sources? Not cold turkey right?

IMO they are to young to remove all heat. I would have left the plate in their brooder so they can get under it when needed. When you see them using it less and less, you know they are comfortable. Heat lamps in small spaces tend to force them to be under it even if they don't need or want it. This last group of chicks I have right now were much earlier in discarding the plate. Perhaps the breed they are, which is Wyandotte.
You should be able to tell when they are more ready for facing the cooler temps. Only put them in the fenced off section outside when the outside temperature is warm enough for them, like around 75-80. I just put mine out in a fenced in section of the run with a rabbit hutch that I lock them in at night. I put the plate in there in case they want it as its been getting in the 50s the last 3 nights. But they are 5 weeks and feathered out real well. It will get down in the 30s a couple of nights this week, but with their feathers and the heat plate in the hutch, I think they will be fine.
Your chicks are really young yet. Just bring them back in for the night, which is a hassle, I know but they will need it for a few more weeks, unless it warms up and stays that way.