hay bale brooder

[sheralynb]

Hello!
I have about 90 five week old chicks in my shed I would like to move into my big pen. I have a big concrete floored horse stall with attached run but the door faces north. I'm thinking of stacking hay bales 2 high in the stall facing the other way and cover with a sheet of plywood and hang my brooder lamp under that. I would be very particular to not let the lamp be too close to the hay. I will use shavings on the floor. Might hang a piece of plastic over the front down to about 6-8 inches off the floor. Has anyone ever used this type of setup, and do you think it will be warm enough? I really want to move them! They would be able to get out in the sun on nice days, and I can start giving them scraps also. Thanks!

 

[ThreeBoysChicks]

With regard to hay bales, you need to be sure they are very very tight together. I had a neighbor who has done this and has lost a couple because they pushed their way between the bales and died.

But theirs has been successful with minimal lose.

 

[sheralynb]

thank you 3boys, I will be very carefull and make sure they fit very snugly. I know how stuff like that happens, one of my goats was strangled on a piece of the orange string my big hay bale was wrapped with. I will be glad to get them out of my tool shed. I was told they create a dust but LORD I had no idea......looks like Christmas snow in there!

 

[Farmer Kitty]

At five weeks old, I would just block the horse stall in, on the open end and hang the heat lamp into the stall. My five week olds were running around the grain room with the heatlamp hanging on one end and did just fine. Unless your where you have to worry about it getting really cold. The hay bales would worry me with a good possiblity of a fire. I know of someone who made a coop from haybales and it did catch fire. Thankfully, they were right there and got it put out right away and all the chickens were fine.