Getting Ready for the Big Leap!

[NonnasBabies]

Welcome!

 

[Blooie]

I second everything you’ve been advised as far as getting chicks in mid to late spring and using something as a barrier against digging predators. In our case our ground was far too difficult to dig, so we used an apron of hardware cloth around the entire perimeter of our setup and up the sides. Works perfectly.

I’m in Northwestern Wyoming not too far from Yellowstone Park. I live in a basin between 3 major mountain ranges. Our springtime temps, during the height of “chick season” are still in the 20s and often drop into the teens, and usually with sideways blowing snow. But by having a run that is protected from predators, wind and nasty weather, I can raise chicks right out there! I use a wire, good sized dog x-pen leftover from my dog showing days. The only heat source I use for my chicks is a human heating pad - a Sunbeam x-Press Heating pad draped over a wire frame to form a cave. It’s like a broody hen, in that chicks duck under for a quick warm up, to sleep at night, or if they get spooked, but it doesn’t move like she does. Commercial brooding plates are good too, but they aren’t soft and dark underneath like a Mama Hen is, and there are limits to how effective they are under certain temperatures. Mama Heating Pad has never failed me once, and I use it exclusively, every batch, every year, every time.

Heat lamps scare the pee-wadding out of me! Watch BYC as the winter goes on, and then into chick season, read the horrific, tragic stories of coop, barn and even home fires caused by them, and you’ll quickly understand why I won’t have one within a hundred miles of my place. Never lost a chick or adult chicken to cold yet, but I can tell you I’d rather lose one or two to cold than lose so much more to fire.

So glad to have you here, and best of luck on your chicken raising adventure and move to a new home! Just remember, if - make that when - you start to get overloaded with information and conflicting advice.....it’s not as complicated as we are sometimes led to believe. After all, if a two pound hen can do it without web sites, books, and instructions, why do we do it so differently and think we’re doing it better?