My elder cat is spraying everywhere; she smells chicks & doesn't like it. Need an outdoor brooder setup ASAP!

[Sunshine_Amy]

Hey everyone. This is my first time raising chicks, who are age 1 week and 2 weeks old exactly. They are getting along wonderfully, but my cat is freaking out and spraying throughout the house. She's a very old and beloved cat, and we're not quite ready to put her down, and she's clearly unhappy with the situation. If someone has a miracle method for making a mostly deaf and blind cat oblivious to the chicks she smells, I'm all ears!, but I'm assuming I'll need to move the birds out to my "Stress Free chicken tractor" ASAP, so I'm looking for a simple outdoor brooder set up for it. We have a heat lamp, a large metal trough thingy that my neighbor lent that we haven't yet used, lots of cardboard and old sheets that could help block wind... lowest temps in the 10 day forecast say 55F degrees. What set up would you recommend???

 

[3KillerBs]

This is my outdoor brooder: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/run-to-outdoor-brooder-conversion.76634/

You can brood right in your coop if you can provide heat in it.

 

[Sunshine_Amy]

This is my outdoor brooder: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/run-to-outdoor-brooder-conversion.76634/

You can brood right in your coop if you can provide heat in it.

Thanks, 3KB, I was hoping for exactly this kind of setup; I’m glad to hear it’s appropriate!

 

[3KillerBs]

Thanks, 3KB, I was hoping for exactly this kind of setup; I’m glad to hear it’s appropriate!

I've got 2-week old chicks out there right now.

Since I wrote the article I've gotten a brooder plate, which I like because I don't have to keep swapping bulbs and putting the lamp up and down.

BUT, some brooder plates aren't good below a certain temperature (often 50F), so if it's colder than that I have to use dual heat with the lamp keeping an area over 50F and the brooder plate keeping the chicks warm enough -- which worked down to 18F this past March when we suddenly had the coldest night of the entire winter when it should have been nearly past our last frost.

 

[Sunshine_Amy]

I've got 2-week old chicks out there right now.

Since I wrote the article I've gotten a brooder plate, which I like because I don't have to keep swapping bulbs and putting the lamp up and down.

BUT, some brooder plates aren't good below a certain temperature (often 50F), so if it's colder than that I have to use dual heat with the lamp keeping an area over 50F and the brooder plate keeping the chicks warm enough -- which worked down to 18F this past March when we suddenly had the coldest night of the entire winter when it should have been nearly past our last frost.

Great suggestion about the brooder plate and the combo when extra cold. That’s crazy about the coldest night happening in March. We had a freak killing frost, just over my house, not the neighbor’s, two weeks after our usual last frost date this year. Thankfully I was late planting things and it only got one thing.

Thanks again for this.

 

[3KillerBs]

This is what my dual-heat setup looked like.

And this is what I've got out there now after I took the lamp out to store it for the summer.

 

[townchicks]

You might also want to get your cat checked for a bladder infection, it's really common in older cats, and peeing everywhere is a symptom. It might be that the chicks arrival stressed her, and brought it on.