Please Help

[clangford106]

Hello everybody! I am getting some chicks this coming Saturday and I need to know if it would be ok to keep them outside under a covered area behind the barn as long as I keep a light on them? I live in Middle TN and it is starting to cool off here. The only thing is, they may experience a draft if the wind blows really hard. Thanks in advance!

Caleb

 

[Judy]

You can certainly brood outdoors, but they should be kept warm and draft free, at least for a few days til they recover from shipping stress, if they were shipped. Perhpas you can upgrade the setup just a bit.

I will certainly never brood indoors again. All that dust, dander and dried poop floating around in the air? Forget it!

Maybe this will help you:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/735392/redneck-fungshui-brooding-17-degree-temperatures/0_20

 

[Ridgerunner]

That draft is bad. Fix that before you put chicks out there. Maybe wrap it with plastic down low. Some draft above them isn’t that bad but you don’t want it hitting them directly.

Chicks need food, water, protection from predators, protection from the environment (like drafts), and a warm spot to go to so they can warm up when they need to. If you can provide that, it doesn’t matter if they are inside or outside.

My 3’ x 6’ brooder is permanently built in my coop. I put chicks straight from the incubator into that brooder last February when the outside temperatures were hitting well below freezing at night. I heat one end and let the far end cool off. It was fairly well wrapped to keep the one end fairly warm but some mornings there was frost on the far end. The food and water was kept on the warmer end. There was some ventilation up high but not a whole lot.

You don’t have to follow that 90 to 95 degrees the first week and drop it by 5 degrees a week you often see on here. If you can keep one area warm enough and the area is big enough so that the rest cools down, they will find their own comfort zone. You don’t have to worry about hitting a perfect temperature.

If they stay huddled right around the heat after the first week or so, you should try to spread the heat a little bit. Maybe a separate heart source further away but with a lower wattage bulb. I’m convinced it is healthier for them to play in different temperatures instead of trying to keep the entire brooder one constant temperature.

 

[clangford106]

Thanks so much for the replies! They will be being kept inside a rabbit hutch that is enclosed w/ wire mesh and is raised off the ground. What I may do is just wrap the outside (facing the opening of the lean-to) w/ plastic and then heat the other side w/ the heat lamp. I can also place the hutch in the back corner away from the open air. I think that would be ok?? Does that sound like a good plan?