non electric heat?

[cleo]

any suggestions for keeping three chicks warm at night without electricity? (short of sleeping with them

 

[GoodEgg]

I'm sure someone else will post some good ideas. I wouldn't have had any myself except that the power went out the second week for quite a few hours, and we were worried about them.

I got a gallon jug and filled it with very-warm water and placed that in the brooder. I replaced it after a few hours, and it seemed to work great. We also used a double-bagged pouch of water at the same time, which they seemed to like better and snuggled up closer to, but at the age they are now (almost 3 weeks) they would probably destroy that.

Can you not use electricity at all? Or just avoiding heat lamp? I asked because we also use a heating pad with ours as well. Oh, and I have seen them dig little holes for themselves in the litter and cover themselves up with it too. Not sure if that was for warmth, but I have seen them do it.

Just wanted to offer!

trish

 

[silkiechicken]

Well, if they are about 2 weeks old, and there are enough of them, you could make a sort of a floating bunker that they can all go inside of and heat up. Basically make a stucture that is well insulated and about chick back level high and they can crawl into it and stay warm when they want to. This only works to a certain extent though. If you don't have enough chicks or if the outside temp is too low, they will get chilled. I used this method to keep a few chicks in the house during the summer starting at about 1 week old. The ambient temp of the house was at 75 and the chicks huddled under a blanket thing to stay warm, during the day though they popped out and were fine.

 

[motherhen]

I don't know if this works but you could keep a small cooler with a whole for them to enter at night and place a small plastic bottle with very warm water in it to provide heat. The 3 should enter the cooler to stay warm and since its small it will retain more heat then a large unit.
Also, my friend put down a lot of straw almost 10" in winter and her hens dig deep wholes in it too stay warm. You might want to try that with you chicks.