How can you keep chicks warm in coop?

[1sellersrobe]

I had posted previously about whether my day old baby chicks would be ok in the coop after a few days, but my friend insisted on putting them out in a few days instead of a few weeks under a brooder. The forecast says highs in the low 80's/lows in the low 60's. I have a few questions:

1. Should I put them under a brooder for a few days, or would the shock of shipping, a few days of heat, then into a coop be too much? Should they just go straight into the coop?
2. Is there any way to warm them without electricity? I had read warm water bottles but they are being kept at his house and can't do that trip a couple times every day. Should I just add a deep layer of straw? Luckily there are plenty of other older birds in there so I think they should have some warm bodies to snuggle up next to.

Thanks for all the help!

 

[nchls school]

Chicks should have supplemental heat for at least three weeks after hatching. New chicks can not survive 60-80 degrees without some kind of heat/heat lamp.

 

[1sellersrobe]

Chicks should have supplemental heat for at least three weeks after hatching. New chicks can not survive 60-80 degrees without some kind of heat/heat lamp.

Ok thank you. I'll try to figure out how to convince either him or my parents to keep them indoors.

 

[Fluffs_flock]

Wait for at least a little while longer.
When you do put them out, pile up bedding in one corner. They'll cuddle.

 

[Willow2253]

A rule of thumb for chicks is have one end of the brooder 90-95 degrees for 1 week old, and reduce that by 5 degrees for every week. Once they’re fully feathered they can maintain their body temperature without supplemental heat.

 

[azygous]

Try to understand the basic principle of newly hatched chicks and body heat. They have no feathers, only dandelion fluff that won't conserve body heat, so if the ambient temp is far below their normal body temperature, (103F) they need supplementary heat to replace lost body heat. The cooler it is, the quicker they lose body heat.

The closer the ambient temperature is to the chicks' normal body temp, the less supplementary heat they will need. Also, during the day when they are consuming calories, they will need less supplementary heat than at night when they aren't consuming calories.

I brood outdoors in my run with a heating pad rigged into a cave. This summer I raised two batches of chicks. The first batch came in early April when it's still freezing at night and the days aren't much warmer than 50F. These chicks ran under their heated cave whenever they lost enough body heat to feel chilled. At night, they slept with their backs making direct contact with the heating pad, which gets around 90F on the surface and around 80F directly underneath it.

The second batch of chicks arrived in mid-summer when the days were in the 90s. They didn't use their heating pad at all during the day since the ambient temp closely matched their body temperature and they weren't losing much if any body heat. At night, the temps were in the 60s and they needed modest amounts of heat as they slept.

To sum up, the warmer it is where you live, the less supplemental heat the chicks will need. But they will likely need some heat. Understanding the principle behind heating baby chicks, perhaps you can rig some sort of huddle box with heat reflective lining and wool batting to reflect the chicks' body heat back toward them. If it's going to be very cold at night where you are, this isn't going to be enough to keep the chicks as warm as they need to be, and you will need some sort of heat for them.

By the time chicks are three weeks old, they will no longer need heat during the day as long as it's moderately warm. By the time chicks are five weeks old, they are fully feathered and no longer require heat.

 

[BigECart]

The larger birds are likely to kill the chicks if you just put them into the coop.

 

[rosemarythyme]

The chicks need access to heat (your temperatures are not high enough for them to survive for an extended period of time) and protection from the adult birds. If you cannot set up the coop to provide both those things, best to not brood them out there at all.