Outdoor Brooder?

[Unclejed925]

I’ve got my 1-2.5 week old chicks outside. There are 2. They’ve got the heating pad (pictured) in there with them on the floor. The door to the coop can close, the coop roof is hinged for access (to the coop and part of the run), and I’m doing hardware cloth all the way around. Will they be okay?

Just wrote a really good post response ... and now I can't find it. So I'm posting this one. If anyone sees it, please respond and I'll give you my "brooder" experience. Thx Red

 

[Chickie_Momma_91]

Just wrote a really good post response ... and now I can't find it. So I'm posting this one. If anyone sees it, please respond and I'll give you my "brooder" experience. Thx Red

Hate when that happens! So far so good. We’re on night 2? 3? And they’re doing okay! Honestly they are more lively and seem happier than my babies I had indoors, and they are naturally copping themselves at dusk from the start. They immediately saw the coop as the safe zone and the run as the play place. I think it’ll be better on them and easier on me going to the big coop since they are acclimated to outdoor temps (my bigs were off heat inside where it was 70° then put outside where it was pushing 90°), they already coop up at night, and they are scratching/foraging from the jump. When I have to get more chicks I’ll def be waiting until it’s mid summer with warmer weather and brooding outdoors from now on.

 

[Unclejed925]

Our fist batch, several years ago, went all wrong and only one survived. Since then we've learned a wee bit more. If you want eggs in the Summer, brood them later Winter or early Spring ... "indoors"! We had another small group we bought at about 6 weeks old ... stroke of genius! They were our first real layers. Bought them old enough to survive the upcoming Fall and early Winter, and got our first eggs on Christmas morning! Sadly, they were all killed that following Summer by community dogs. We have since reinforced the coop and run and we now have our girl Maddie, an Austrailian Shepherd, who has taken the flock under her wing. Godzilla couldn't get close to these yardbirds! We are now brooding a batch of 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 week old chicks on the screened in back porch. Only using a 100 watt normal bulb and everyone is doing great. About ready to put them in the lower level of the coop, segregated from the bigger hens and rooster for a few more weeks until they're all pretty feathered in, where we will still use a lamp at night, then we will incorporate all together. As you (or someone) said earlier, they just thrive more outdoors in the dirt and grass and sunshine. Would have transferred them this weekend, but we have suddenly been overwhelmed with Red Mites! Already killed one hen before we knew what was happening. It is now being completely treated (but that's for a later post).