New from Iowa

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QuiltinChick

QuiltinChick

In the Brooder
7 Years
Feb 26, 2012
88
3
43
Iowa
Hello, we are new to the Backyard Chicken Board and will be getting our first chickens in a couple of weeks. We have been preparing for them for a couple of months now. We are very excited.

We are converting a garden shed to a chicken coop and still have some work to do on it.

Our chickens are on order and we should receive them mid-March. We have ordered 50 Barred Rocks from Murray McMurray Hatchery and get to go and pick them up!!
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My first question is about where we should set up the brooder. We are planning on making a brooder out of some plastic/cardboard stuff. I think it should be in the heated garage that is attached to the house. My hubby thinks it can be set up in the chicken coop. The coop will be insulated, but we are in Central Iowa and I don't think the weather will be warm enough even with a heat lamp.

So, what do you think?
 
Hi!
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We always get to pick up our orders from McMurray, too. It's great! The chicks would be fine in the coop as long as you have a heat lamp and no drafts but the garage would work, too. It's kind of nice to have them close to the house when they are really small so you can check on them frequently, but definitely not necessary. Welcome!
 
Hi and welcome to BYC from northern Michigan
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Wow, 50! That is a lot of chicks. You will find that they make an amazing amount of dust, you will not want them inside your garage for very long. As long as you set up heat zones for them in the brooder, they will be fine in the coop. With that many chicks you may want to have several "warm" zones in your brooder, so that they don't pile up and get crushed.
 
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THANKS for the responses. I guess I am just being an overprotective mother hen!! :)

Another question I have is if we receive a rooster, on accident (we ordered females only), do we need to get rid of them? We want to have eggs to sell, so we don't want them fertilized. Will there be any harm in keeping a rooster around?
 
Hello and welcome from Southwest Ohio....I couldn't live without my roosters-they are my favorites and I love to hear them crow. Good luck on your decision :)
 
I'm in Des Moines, raising 30 chickens of various ages. I brooded my first chicks in the basement. Very dusty. The second batch went into the garage during winter. I used a large dog kennel with 2 heat lamps with 250 watt bulbs hung low enough to reach 95 degrees or so at the chicks back on one end. That way the chicks can find a comfortable area to sit. They go back and forth under the heat lamps to regulate their body temperature preferring to sit somewhere int the middle. It got as low as -2 in the garage and they were fine. If you find that they are huddling directly under the heat lamp they are too cold and you should lower the lamps a bit.

I can't brood in my coop because the heat lamps would cook my other chickens as they are used to the cold. The coop is an insulated metal shed that I do not heat. The garage works fine to brood in but it is dusty. My garage isn't heated, so yours would work even better. Good luck with your chicks. Raising them is so much fun, and is very relaxing.
 

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