Mine are raised outside in a wire brooder pen within the run, where the adults can walk around them on 3 sides. The pen is set up in a corner of the run, borrowed temporarily from the adults’ space. They are on the same litter that they’ll live on for the rest of their lives, and when they’re outside in yard, on the same dirt as well. (I have always had a dog around in the yard too, by the way.) Chicks here get a clump of sod, grassy side down, in their brooder pen, to play with. Even when I was brooding them in the house back when I first started, they got a clump of sod from the yard at just a couple of days old. I dug it up and plopped it in the brooder box - roots, grasses, little pebbles, bugs and all. At first it terrified them - this big alien in their space. But soon they were digging in it, pecking and scratching in it, playing King of the Mountain on it, and having a blast. In the process they were building up immunities to the fungi and microbes that they’d be living on forever while they still had some natural immunities from their mother. As it broke down they loved to dust bathe in it. It virtually eliminated “brooder boredom”. And they got little chick-sized bits of grit from it.
Watch a broody hen with her chicks. She has them out on the ground, following her around, at just a couple of days old. They eat whatever tidbits she calls them to find, they eat bugs and weeds, seeds and even chicken poop, they explore, they drink out of mud puddles and the water left standing after a rain. They are tough and strong from the start because they haven’t been kept in an artificially “sterile” environment. They spend most of their time running all over the place, just ducking under her for a quick warmup or if they get spooked, then they’re right back out again. When the sun goes down they tuck in under, on top of, or around her and they sleep - all night through. She has no night light under her wings, nor do they eat all night long. They sleep - 8 hours of complete and total, uninterrupted sleep. If a two pound hen can do it with no books, no charts, no experts, and no web sites, why do we do it so differently and think we are doing it better?
I duplicate her as closely as possible. Mine live outside and never see an artificial light, either for heat or for my comfort. They have a Mama Heating Pad Cave. It’s soft, snuggly, dark, secure and warm. They wean themselves off all heat by 3 weeks old and are mingling with the adults all day long. At 4 weeks old they are off all heat completely, totally integrated with the flock, and their brooder pen is torn down completely. They are playing and foraging outside in the yard. They wander in and out of the coop and run at will. I bought a bottle of Corrid when I got my very first chicks in 2014. I have yet to break the seal on the bottle.
You might think chicks raised away from me would be flighty and unfriendly. Nope. They are self-regulating so they are calm and confident. When I go out for chores or to check them right after I get (or hatch) them, they react as most tiny chicks do - they cheep loudly and try to get away from me. But the difference is that they HAVE a place to get away. They aren’t running the perimeter of the box in panic and associating that panic with you. They duck under Mama Heating Pad for security, just as they would under a broody. After they figure out that they are safe, which takes just a few minutes, they come right back out. And they see the adults in the run - all but 4 of the 22 raised exactly as they are being raised, by the way - coming up to us and not being alarmed, which tells them that we are in no way threats to them. It doesn’t take them long to accept us, then look forward to our visits.
Now, I am certainly not telling you that you have to raise your chicks this way. You are there, I’m not. You know your setup, your climate, and your own personal comfort zone far better than I do. After doing my first batch “by the book”, I’ve done 8 other batches like this over the years, and I won’t do it any other way. But the points of this long post are this:
1) Being outside on the ground at a young age is no more a threat to their immune systems than keeping them isolated on an artificial surface for weeks, then just putting them out with no chance to build any immunities gradually. Sudden change stresses them, and being evicted is a huge change. When chicks are stressed, any parasite load they carry (and Coccidia are present in them no matter how they’re hatched and raised) can bloom overnight and outstrip their natural ability to cope with the resulting toxins and load.
2) And you don’t have to carry them in your pockets or shirts constantly to build calm, happy chickens . In a brooder box, no matter how big it is, all they can do when they are frightened is run the perimeter of the box, around and around. They pile up for a few minutes because instinct for self-preservation tells them that the chicks on the outside of the pile are more likely to be taken, so none of them wants to be on the outside of the pile. But the pile quickly breaks up and they’re back to running. I have a short video which illustrates this and self-calming perfectly. I’ll be happy to post it, should you care to see it.
Could they get sick if you put them outside? Of course they could. I’d be a fool to say otherwise. But dirt is going to be a natural part of their world for years to come. Putting that contact off might make humans feel better, but it’s not how they are programmed. And dealing with giant predators, which is how they see us, means we have to force them to “like us” by grabbing, approaching them and suddenly appearing over the edge of the brooder box, offering special treats, and not giving them any way to self-calm and simply accept us as part of their world on their terms.
There are no totally right and totally wrong ways to raise chicks - the right way is what works for each individual. So my point is is not to pressure, but to reassure. The more natural a start we give these little critters, the easier their lives become, and outside in the grass, the sunshine, and the fresh air are pretty doggone natural.
