Raising chicks in an outdoor brooder

[Backyardhomestead921]

We really don’t want to raise chicks inside but it’s not all the way ruled out. We are getting chicks in late January and we want to keep them outside. I have raised chicks before, but only in warmer weather. So some background info- I live in WV and our winters very every year. But normally in the 30s and 40s, but every now and then can go in the 20s but normally it’s only that cold at night. . And our brooder is like a coop but just more of a brooder size if that makes sense. It is 4.5 ft by 6 ft. And the brooder has a run attached.

So I am wondering if anyone has any info to help. Sorry if this sounds stupid. I just need to know if I can raise the chicks outside in the colder months? Or should I just keep them in an indoor brooder? And if I raise them outside in the colder months , what should I do to make it safe ( warm )?

And help is much appreciated .

 

[3KillerBs]

I'm in North Carolina and have had chicks in the Outdoor Brooder ( https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/run-to-outdoor-brooder-conversion.76634/ ) as low as 20F -- though that was an unexpected cold snap.

What I ended up doing was running dual heat -- a Big Red Bulb to keep the area around the water and near the brooder plate warm enough for the brooder place (the Producers' Pride one from TSC), to keep the chicks warm.

Most brooder plates are not rated for use below about 50F so some kind of additional heat is usually needed to keep the area around the plate warmer than ambient.

I've heard of a thing called an Ohio Brooder, which was developed for raising chicks in barns in cold winters, but I don't know anything solid about them.

 

[Backyardhomestead921]

I'm in North Carolina and have had chicks in the Outdoor Brooder ( https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/run-to-outdoor-brooder-conversion.76634/ ) as low as 20F -- though that was an unexpected cold snap.

What I ended up doing was running dual heat -- a Big Red Bulb to keep the area around the water and near the brooder plate warm enough for the brooder place (the Producers' Pride one from TSC), to keep the chicks warm.

Most brooder plates are not rated for use below about 50F so some kind of additional heat is usually needed to keep the area around the plate warmer than ambient.

I've heard of a thing called an Ohio Brooder, which was developed for raising chicks in barns in cold winters, but I don't know anything solid about them.

Thank you!

 

[NatJ]

I just need to know if I can raise the chicks outside in the colder months?

Yes you can raise them outside.

Here's a thread from a few months ago. Several of the responses talk about raising chicks outdoors in cool weather.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/too-cold-this-winter-for-chicks.1551685/

Two quotes from a post in that thread:

What you want is to keep one spot warm enough in the coolest temperatures and one spot cool enough in your warmest temperatures. It doesn't matter how warm one spot gets as long as they can go to a spot that is cool enough. It doesn't matter how cold one spot gets as long as they can go to a place warm enough.

My 3' x 6' brooder is in the coop. I put chicks in there straight out of the incubator whether we are having a summer heat wave or it's below freezing. In the summer I use a lower wattage bulb on one end. In winter I use two heat lamps on one end in case one fails but there may be ice in the far end. The air temperature may go from below freeing into the 70's F in a few hours. If the chicks get warm they move to the cooler end. If they get cold they move to the warm end.

our brooder is like a coop but just more of a brooder size if that makes sense. It is 4.5 ft by 6 ft. And the brooder has a run attached... what should I do to make it safe ( warm )?

That sounds like a nice size for a brooder.

For cold weather use: provide heat in one corner, preferably two sources in case one stops working unexpectedly (like two heat lamps next to each other, both secured so they cannot fall; or a heat lamp and a brooder plate). Use a thermometer before the chicks arrive, to make sure that corner stays warm enough (90+ degrees even in the coldest weather.)

And make sure they have plenty of cool space to get away from that heat. Even when they are quite young, they will run off to play in the cold, then come back to warm up. So they acclimate themself to cool temperatures, and all you have to do is provide enough space for them to do it. When you see that they are not using the heat source, even on chilly nights, that is the time to remove it (probably between 3 weeks and 8 weeks, depending on how fast the chicks grow their feathers and what the weather is doing at the time.)

I would probably close off the run for the first week or so, but sometime in week two or three I would let the chicks have access to the run as well. By that age they are fairly good at finding their way back to the heat. I would not force them to go into the run, just open the door and let them explore at their own pace.

 

[Backyardhomestead921]

Yes you can raise them outside.

Here's a thread from a few months ago. Several of the responses talk about raising chicks outdoors in cool weather.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/too-cold-this-winter-for-chicks.1551685/

Two quotes from a post in that thread:





That sounds like a nice size for a brooder.

For cold weather use: provide heat in one corner, preferably two sources in case one stops working unexpectedly (like two heat lamps next to each other, both secured so they cannot fall; or a heat lamp and a brooder plate). Use a thermometer before the chicks arrive, to make sure that corner stays warm enough (90+ degrees even in the coldest weather.)

And make sure they have plenty of cool space to get away from that heat. Even when they are quite young, they will run off to play in the cold, then come back to warm up. So they acclimate themself to cool temperatures, and all you have to do is provide enough space for them to do it. When you see that they are not using the heat source, even on chilly nights, that is the time to remove it (probably between 3 weeks and 8 weeks, depending on how fast the chicks grow their feathers and what the weather is doing at the time.)

I would probably close off the run for the first week or so, but sometime in week two or three I would let the chicks have access to the run as well. By that age they are fairly good at finding their way back to the heat. I would not force them to go into the run, just open the door and let them explore at their own pace.

Thank you!

 

[Backyardhomestead921]

Yes you can raise them outside.

Here's a thread from a few months ago. Several of the responses talk about raising chicks outdoors in cool weather.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/too-cold-this-winter-for-chicks.1551685/

Two quotes from a post in that thread:





That sounds like a nice size for a brooder.

For cold weather use: provide heat in one corner, preferably two sources in case one stops working unexpectedly (like two heat lamps next to each other, both secured so they cannot fall; or a heat lamp and a brooder plate). Use a thermometer before the chicks arrive, to make sure that corner stays warm enough (90+ degrees even in the coldest weather.)

And make sure they have plenty of cool space to get away from that heat. Even when they are quite young, they will run off to play in the cold, then come back to warm up. So they acclimate themself to cool temperatures, and all you have to do is provide enough space for them to do it. When you see that they are not using the heat source, even on chilly nights, that is the time to remove it (probably between 3 weeks and 8 weeks, depending on how fast the chicks grow their feathers and what the weather is doing at the time.)

I would probably close off the run for the first week or so, but sometime in week two or three I would let the chicks have access to the run as well. By that age they are fairly good at finding their way back to the heat. I would not force them to go into the run, just open the door and let them explore at their own pace.

I will say I don’t use heat lamps. I use heat plates/brooder heat panel. So would I just set up 2 of them?

Edit: also my brooder coop isn’t tall enough for one. It is only like 3 ft tall.

 

[NatJ]

I will say I don’t use heat lamps. I use heat plates/brooder heat panel. So would I just set up 2 of them?

Yes.

I would probably start with one heat panel, and a brooder plate nearby so it is in the warm area, and check what temperature you can get. Then decide whether you need to add another heat panel or some other source of heat, or whether it's fine that way.

The warm area needs to be big enough for all the chicks to snuggle in and get warm at the same time, even once they grow a bit, but it does not need to heat the whole brooder. It doesn't really matter what method you use to warm that area, as long as it works.

Edit: also my brooder coop isn’t tall enough for one. It is only like 3 ft tall.

3 feet is plenty high enough to use a heat lamp. I've done it quite a few times. A common recommendation is to have the bulb about 18" to 24" above the floor, which still leaves the top of the heat lamp lower than 3 feet. (And that's with the big 250 watt bulb. If you use a lower-wattage bulb, you would probably need to hang it lower than that.)

But I would definitely start with the heat source you already have and are comfortable using, and only change something if you have trouble getting the temperature high enough.

Since you've got over a month before you get the chicks, you've got plenty of time to set something up, measure the temperature, and try other things if you need to.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't know how many chicks you are getting but that sounds like a really nice brooder size. I'd keep them locked in the broder section only until I was comfortable that they can handle the lowest temperature they are likely to see outside, not let them into the run. Where you are that's probably at five weeks, six weeks old would really be safe. A ground level coop/brooder is usually not too bad but that might depend some on what your pop door looks like. But at 3' height that may be an elevated brooder. Those can be a bit more complicated as to the chicks learning to go back inside. I would not want to give them an opportunity to get confused about where the heat is until they don't need it. This is an overabundance of caution but why not?

The chicks don't care how the warm spot is heated. Your proposed system should work fine. What they need is a spot warm enough in the coldest conditions and a spot cool enough in the warmest conditions. I've seen temperatures swing from below freezing to in the 70's F pretty quickly. One of the keys to that is to have ventilation so the far end of the brooder can cool off if it starts to get too hot. You should not need a lot of ventilation to achieve that. The far end does not get dangerously hot until you get up in the upper 90's F.

 

[Backyardhomestead921]

I don't know how many chicks you are getting but that sounds like a really nice brooder size. I'd keep them locked in the broder section only until I was comfortable that they can handle the lowest temperature they are likely to see outside, not let them into the run. Where you are that's probably at five weeks, six weeks old would really be safe. A ground level coop/brooder is usually not too bad but that might depend some on what your pop door looks like. But at 3' height that may be an elevated brooder. Those can be a bit more complicated as to the chicks learning to go back inside. I would not want to give them an opportunity to get confused about where the heat is until they don't need it. This is an overabundance of caution but why not?

The chicks don't care how the warm spot is heated. Your proposed system should work fine. What they need is a spot warm enough in the coldest conditions and a spot cool enough in the warmest conditions. I've seen temperatures swing from below freezing to in the 70's F pretty quickly. One of the keys to that is to have ventilation so the far end of the brooder can cool off if it starts to get too hot. You should not need a lot of ventilation to achieve that. The far end does not get dangerously hot until you get up in the upper 90's F.

I would be getting 10 chicks. . And the brooder itself is raised. It is about 3 ft off the ground. Don’t know if that changes anything. And I have put chicks outside at like 2 weeks old and they started goin g in at night, and I was very shocked. Sorry that was a bit random.

 

[3KillerBs]

I will say I don’t use heat lamps. I use heat plates/brooder heat panel. So would I just set up 2 of them?

Just make 100% sure that they're rates for use in the temperatures you're expecting. Some brands are intended to be used in an area that doesn't drop below 50F.

You'll also need to make sure that their water cannot freeze.