Raising baby chicks in the winter?

[familyfarmers]

So, my beautiful flock of 20 birds had an unfortunate run in with some dogs, and I only have two survivors. My husband and I would like to get some more chicks, but is it too late in the year? By the time they are 8 weeks old, it will be December. Our winters here in central Arkansas aren't that bad, but would they be okay to go outside in December, if they are fully feathered?

 

[Peplers chicks]

I would advice to keep them in coop, with additional heating aids, It is the cold nights that can be a porb

 

[familyfarmers]

Thats what I was afraid of. Right now, I don't really have any good way to run electricity to my coop. Would an extension cord and a heat lamp on a timer be enough?

 

[Peplers chicks]

On 8 weeks they will be well feathered, so maybe only for that extra cold nights

 

[jkraze]

I ran an extension to my coop last winter and it did pretty well, actually. It's plugged into a GFCI outlet on the back porch, so in case anything goes awry, it should shut off. BTW, we just got 10 new chicks this week (hatched 11/6), so we'll be keeping them in our garaged brooder box for a good while. The only problem I see is the downy stuff getting everywhere as they feather in! LOL

Jay

 

[trunkman]

They should be fine as long as they have a constant heat source till they feather out. My 25 egg layers and 25 cornish rocks arrived October 16 and my heat source is a power cord to the coop with 2 heat lamps, The reason I have 2 is because I separated the meat birds from the layers. The nights here have been chilly, down to the low 30's at night and upper 50's and 60's during the day and no problems so far, my only worry is if the bulbs would go out but they have started to feather up now so I worry a little less each day.
Good luck!!

 

[realsis]

Just be very careful with the heat lamps in the coops. I've seen so many coop fires from accidents and its heart breaking. Maybe you can get one of those new brooder lamps that are fire safe. I forget the name but they come on when chicks are near and turn off when they are not. I think they are called Brinsea Eco
Glow. They are around 60 dollars and are completely fire safe. Id go that route. You can check them out online. Its defiently worth a little extra money for the Eco Glow to pervent a coop fire. I hope this helps
and wish you The best.

 

[Momma ash]

We live in central Arkansas too!! I just hatched 2 chicks under one of our hens, momma and babies are out in the coup. We do have a heat lamp for night time.

 

[chicken8]

I would consider holding off until spring just to make things easier. However, at eight weeks I would think the chicks would be fine. My 12-week old chick was kicked out from under the broody last week and it's been doing fine and we had temps down to 15F last night (no heat lamps).

 

[jkraze]

Doesn't it get a bit too cold to be raising chickens in AK (in the winter) without a heat source?