i use a heat lamp with my chicks, not really sure of any other way. we lose power real easy here and dont have a generator. im wondering, how do you all manage keeping your chicks warm when your power goes out?
Quote:Do you have a wood stove? If so, I would warm up some water on the stove and put it in a water bottle, or if you have one of those rice/lavender relaxation bags you could warm that near the stove and put it in the brooder for them to snuggle up to. Those would be my first two thoughts after moving the brooder near the wood stove. Edit to add: Or, my last resort, do you have any of those packets that you "snap" and they heat up? My dad and brother use them for their pockets for hunting and warming their hands, a bunch of those together would be better than nothing and last for a few hours.
Do you have a way to heat anything up? If so, you can use rocks and a hot water bottle, wrapped in a towel......
I've got a generator, but it is too much trouble to fire it up unless the power outage is a long one. I can move the brooder close to the wood stove if it is really cold. Or heat water on the wood stove for hot water bottles. Or warm rice socks on the wood stove. If you don't have a wood stove, or a gas cook stove, I suggest that you invest in a small camp stove that works on the small bottles of propane. You can use that to heat water for hot water bottles. You can also heat water on a barbecue grill for hot water bottles (outside!, don't gas yourself to death warming your chicks)
Quote:We live in north Alabama and just had this happen to us. Here's what I did... We have gas water heater and gas stove. I filled up 5-16.9 oz water bottles with very hot water and set them in a box then put shavings on top so the heat could filter up without burning the chicks. (the bottles fit perfectly in the box I had). Then I set the box in the brooder. Every 2-3 hours throughout the night, I changed them. It kept the chicks warm. They seemed to enjoy it. When the chicks got too warm, they climbed out of the box. In the morning, I started using even more bottles, some in the box and some just in the brooder so they could be warm in either place. Edit to add: Many thanks to the BYCers who suggested the water bottles. We were skeered poopless!
