How Big a Brooder?

[neonbantam]

I ordered 85 baby chicks from the rochester hatchery. My multipourpose chicks are coming in 4 days! There are 45 of them but i'm not exactly sure how big a brooder i need for them. The rest of them are coming june 6th and i'm not sure if I should keep the older ones with the younger ones or should i just have a different pens for both groups? Thanks everyone!

 

[chicmom]

So many chicks.......You really need something HUGE, like a horse stall. Do you have a barn?

 

[what did I do]

Are they going to be the only chicks/chickens in the coop? If so I'd move them out into the coop as soon as they are eating and drinking well. I'd put two or three heat lamps out in the coop - your coop isn't drafty is it? - with the lamps just out of reach of the chicks. They will need plenty of water. I'd add the second batch to the coop after they are eating and drinking well. When you get the chicks it is a good idea to dunk each chicks beek into the water. I added pie pans with rocks until the chicks all got their fill of water. The chicks will drown in a water without rocks.

 

[neonbantam]

Well, we just built a big chicken coop, i'm just worried that if i give the first group the entire chicken coop will they get too cold. I do have 2 really good brand new heat lamps, and the chicken coop is amazing! No drafts, no leaks in the roof and they will be the only ones in there so i am able to give them the entire coop if i need to.....i also bought 2 1 litre waterers that you just fill up and screw on the base but i'm not sure if brand new babies will be able to reach them..... this is my first time raising chicks from teeny newly hatched so i'm kinda clueless on the whole new born to month old stage so any advice you guys can give me is really helpful! but will the week old chicks be any problem at all with the teeny ones?

 

[what did I do]

Well, we just built a big chicken coop, i'm just worried that if i give the first group the entire chicken coop will they get too cold. I do have 2 really good brand new heat lamps, and the chicken coop is amazing! No drafts, no leaks in the roof and they will be the only ones in there so i am able to give them the entire coop if i need to.....i also bought 2 1 litre waterers that you just fill up and screw on the base but i'm not sure if brand new babies will be able to reach them..... this is my first time raising chicks from teeny newly hatched so i'm kinda clueless on the whole new born to month old stage so any advice you guys can give me is really helpful! but will the week old chicks be any problem at all with the teeny ones?

Just how cold is it at night where you live?

Just get some boards to make a square to keep the chicks under the light. When the chicks start jumping out remove the square. If you can't make it warm enough cover part of it with cardboard. The chicks will bunch up in the corners so put cardboard in the corners.

Making a brooder for that many chicks is a little hard that is why I suggest brooding them in the coop. They grow fast and they are dirty - chick dust. With a handful of chicks you don't notice the mess chicks make but when you have a bunch of them the mess is big.

 

[neonbantam]

It gets pretty dang cold i the winter but it's pretty nice in the summer. But big chickens aren't as suseptable to cold as little baby chicks right? That's why I ordered them as late as i could get them.

 

[what did I do]

It gets pretty dang cold i the winter but it's pretty nice in the summer. But big chickens aren't as suseptable to cold as little baby chicks right? That's why I ordered them as late as i could get them.

It gets cold where I am too but right now it is nice. I moved my 130 chick out to the coop at day 3 and put them under the brooder. My brooder is kind of like a big top tent, only metal - look on my page. It worked wonderfully to have them out in the coop. We did get snow a few days after I put them out in the coop but it didn't hurt them.