Please help! Raising baby chicks NOW in a cold climate!

[MagsC]

Been following this thread, there are some great ideas!! I am brooding in the house right now too and it sure cant go on indefinitely,lol.
The other side to that coin is MN winters can be brutal as well.

 

[BeardedChick]

That little building is cute. You might need a small fan to circulate the heat. It's all going to to straight to the ceiling & the floor might still be cold.

 

[EasTurdHill]

Maryland winters are cold but rarely below zero. We do have awfully high humidity though, that makes for a cold damp everything.
I have 12 2-week olds that will be going out in the coop as soon as they are feathered. I am insulating the coop and putting the heat lamp out there.
My mom bought a remote thermometer with humidity sensor so she can monitor it all from the house. There is an alarm if the heat reaches a temp that you set. I thought that was a great idea !

 

[pbjmaker]

Argh - my worst nightmare almost came true. I had put my (10) 3 week olds out in the garage with a heat lamp and towels around their cage. The temp wouldn't get above 69 this way - so I bought a bigger wattage heat bulb - that won't work in my lamp (too much wattage). Anyway I had to get to my night class and when I got home to check on them somehow their cage was on the floor, the heat lamp unplugged and only 44 degrees in their brooder, plus the water was knocked over making the bedding damp. I have noooo idea how this happened - but am glad in my paranoia that I checked on them when I did. I brought them in and they don't seem any worse for wear. In fact all the silkie and millie chicks protected the two week old serama/cochin baby. I guess that I definately need a different set-up. I just wish I knew how the cage fell - it was in a very secure place that something had to shove hard to make it fall.

 

[FrChuckW]

Quote:
I would suspect either the dogs or the cats investigating what was making the noise under the towels. I used to have a cat that liked to sleep on top of my parakeet flight cage. When the birds got bored they would go up and hang upside down and nip at the cat parts that came through the bars on the cage. Cat never did learn it was the birds that did it, I finally put a board across the top for her.

 

[Solsken Farm]

Wow pbj! How lucky that they are all okay! Someone gave me some advice for brooding baby chicks in an unheated barn in the northeast where it is bitter cold. I will copy and paste it here for everyone. It is a super set up!

 

[chickenannie]

My hen hatched 9 babies at the beginning of November, and all are doing great (they free-range outside during the day and stay in an unheated coop at night). Temps are at 28 to 38 F. The chicks run around in the cold fine but they take plenty of "warm-up" breaks under momma hen. they seem to be doing fine. I don't have snow, though, or the cold that you have.

 

[Cottage Rose]

Jennifer...wheres that information?!?
Can't wait to read it!

Sorry to the other posters about the cage falling.
Glad the chicks are all ok!
Whew!

 

[Solsken Farm]

Okay, here is the info. I will see if I can transfer the pic, too.

**************************************************************
I have a shelf with solid metal shelves, but you could just put a board on top of
the shelves if they have holes.

I put wire around the whole thing, and built a frame for the doors with wood. It has
3 shelves about 14 inches tall each.

I hung a metal work light fixture from the bottom of the shelves. If you can wire
it, it hanges better. I tried using duct tape but they keep slowly coming down. Keep
the metal shades on the lights. The chicks can gather under them if they need the
warmth.

I put the waterers near the lights so they don't freeze, but really, it stays warm
in the whole thing.

I used a canvas tarp because its heavier than plastic so the sides hang snugly to
the shelf. I used big plastic clips to hang the tarp to the top of the shelve and
overlapped the ends in front of the door for easy access.
When I wanted to openthe doors or take a peek, I just let one clip off and let just
the area of the door open.

I used shavings for the bedding and had to clean it out about every 2 weeks or so.
My shelf is about 5 feet wide by 16 inches deep and 5 feet tall. I could keep about
20 chicks in each section. When they got bigger at around 3 weeks, I moved them to
a floor brooder with a heat lamp.

I had the top shelf with 2 lights because that is where I put the chicks right out
of the hatcher, so it was warmer. Then as I put the next batch in, I moved them down
to the middle shelf, & so on....

edited to add: I think this can be modified in many ways, but I like the idea of the metal serving as a heat conduit. I may just go ahead and try to find an old metal desk or something and cover the whole thing since I am not staggering hatches.

I also do not know the wattage of the bulbs. I will try to bug Richard one more time....

Hope this helps!

 

[joebryant]

When I recently thought my little silkie was going broodie, I was considering putting six to eight eggs under her to hatch. I was not planning to leave her in her coop with a high ceiling if I did this though. I was going to make a 3'x4' x2'-high plywood box with a drop-down 1'x4' clear plexiglass door to put her in. The floor area under the drop-down door would have a four-inch layer of equine pellets that I would occasionally stir when sprinkling diatomaceous earth. That would be kept in our unheated attached garage, and I would turn the garage light on during the day and off when it got dark. As soon as I though the chicks were large/feathered enough, I'd move them all to the silkie's coop.