How long indoors?

[junebuggena]

So how much dust and dander are we talking about here? Haha now I'm worried. I'll have my chicks indoors for at least 3 weeks until our run is complete outside. I've lined the entire floor with plastic (an empty back bedroom) and have the brooder on a large rectangular table. Will running air cleaners help you think?

I would not brood chicks in a room with carpet or upholstered furniture. The dust won't be noticeable until about the second week, when feather growth really takes off. You'll have dust, dander, quil sheaths, and bits of shed down everywhere. Spare bathrooms work great, lots of easy to wipe down surfaces. Another option is brooding in a garage, basement, or other unfinished space.

 

[Blooie]

Poor hubby! His tuxedo was hanging in the back of a closet in the room the chicks were in. After they went out (at 5.5 weeks because I couldn't handle the dust anymore) we cleaned the room thoroughly. It was Ken's office. We found dust inside the stapler. Inside the bottom of the pen holder. You don't even want to know about the spare computer keyboard and the glass on the windows. But the worst was after we'd stripped the room down to parade rest, vacuumed and wet cleaned every surface, and he found dust inside the pockets of his tux. Yep, that's when I started brooding chicks outdoors!

 

[lazy gardener]

So how much dust and dander are we talking about here? Haha now I'm worried. I'll have my chicks indoors for at least 3 weeks until our run is complete outside. I've lined the entire floor with plastic (an empty back bedroom) and have the brooder on a large rectangular table. Will running air cleaners help you think?

We're talking dust like you've never experienced before, until you've experienced chicks. Think: finely atomized oil, mixed with very finely sifted flour, and then sprayed with a paint sprayer over every surface in the home. That dust will cover every square inch of the room the chicks are in, and it will seep under the doors and into the adjoining rooms. Got asthma? Got breathing issues of any sort? Add chicks to the mix, and your respiratory issues will be multiplied 10 fold. An air purifier will simply get covered with the oily silt along with everything else.

 

[MH37125]

Ok well I'm convinced. They are going to the garage. Was going to have them in the house mainly for my little girls to watch and play with them since it is still snowing here. so ready for warmer weather. El Niño kicked our butts this year!

 

[junebuggena]

Keeping them inside for a week or two to make sure they are all healthy and growing is fine. It's not until after the wings are feathered that the dust really starts to get crazy. At that point they will have outgrown a small indoor brooder tub and need a bit more space anyways. Mine stay in the bathroom till they are about 2 weeks old. This gives them a chance to get used to people being around and you can monitor them for healthy growth and development more easily.
Once they hit 2 weeks, they need space to flap and run. They go into an empty, unfinished room next to the garage with a kiddie pool for a brooder. Once they aren't spending time under the heat lamp to warm up, they go out the chick coop.
This is how I do it, since I don't have electricity anywhere near the coop.

 

[Leigti]

I am keeping my three chicks in the house for the first month or so and then they are going out to the garage with a heat lamp. I can attest to the dust issue, even with only three chicks last time there was a ridiculous amount of dust. My garage is just being built and is almost done. I don't have any trouble with the heat lamps, I have tortoises so heat lamps are nothing new. There's not a problem as long as you make sure they are secured well and not hanging by the clamp. The clamps will eventually fail so use wire to hang them from a secure stand.
I don't have electricity in my coop so that makes for a different set of circumstances.

 

[ejcrist]

I kept my 25 gals in a large brooder I built in my garage with a 250 w lamp raised up about 3' for the first 3 weeks or so. My garage temp varied but was around 50-60 F on average. After 3 weeks I changed to a 125 w bulb, and at about 5 weeks I'd leave the bulb off during the day for a couple hours till I got home from work. Last week (6 weeks old) I moved them to a coop and run I just finished and hung the 125 w light in the coop at about 3'. I've been turning the light on at night since it's been getting down to about 45-50 but I've been cutting it off when I open the hen hatch to the run around 6:00 AM before I go to work. This is the coldest part of the day but it warms up quickly when the sun rises. When I check on them in the morning a couple will be laying under the light but most are scattered around the coop with a few on the highest roosts. I'm planning on removing the light completely next week since they'll be 8 weeks old and should be good-to-go, but I'll keep an eye on them the first night to make sure they're not under any stress. I think a few prefer the heat and most don't need it. This is my first flock so I wanted to take it slow to minimize any stress. Like a lot of people have said on here I think at 8 weeks they'll be fine without any supplemental light. I live in the low desert so heat will be more of a factor in a few weeks than cold.

After raising this first flock I can say without a doubt I would never raise chicks in the house no matter the number of birds or the temperature outside or in the garage. I can't imagine keeping up with the dust, etc. A 250 w bulb will provide all the heat you need for the first 3 weeks in a draft-free brooder whether in the garage, coop, or barn. And like others have said you only need to keep one spot warm at around 90-95 F for the first week. Since raising these gals I'm building a brooder/coop combo for the broilers I have due in March. In the future after my layers retire I'll raise the next batch in the broilers' brooder/coop. Even in the garage the dust and mess was a bit much and I had to do a thorough cleaning/sweeping twice a day after the first 3 weeks or so. Just my opinion but I think chickens were made to be raised outdoors for sure.

 

[firecop77]

I just put my chicks straight in the coop but they did already have feathers I bought them older and am in AZ so it doesn't get below 60 degrees at night this time of year

 

[aatx]

This is my third year with chicks. First year they were inside about 5 weeks. Second year they were hatches with broody hens and they stayed inside for 2-3 weeks. This year I actually was able to graft on chicks from Tractor Supply to a broody. They've been together inside since this weekend. We have some bad weather in the forecast next week, so I don't know if they will move permanently outdoors this weekend or if I'll wait until next weekend. I brood indoors in a spare room with vinyl flooring. It stays as a dedicated "chicken/mealworm room" and when there aren't chicks in there, can be used as a "hospital/isolation/observation" room for the chickens along with my mealworm colony. My brooder is 6' x 2' and has a lid with thick plastic mesh and the sides are solid for the first foot. This seems to keep much of the "chicken dust" contained. I enjoy having them inside for a few weeks and do not find the cleaning a problem with my current setup.

 

[corrabelle]

I have to keep mine inside this year-weve moved to a new property and have no out buildings. (Not even our coop yet) so they're going to be living in our laundry room for a fee weeks.

Next year though, outside. Although,it does feel weird and like a waste of energy to heat the outdoors.