Security of my brooder

DarthKahuna

Hatching
Mar 17, 2018
9
2
9
Bringing 5 week old chicks home (x4) Still working on the coop/run (delayed due to rain) so I have to keep them on the back porch (pregnant wife said "hell no" to inside ) It's screened in & elevated. They'll also be confined to a 4'x3' create made of 4 gauge hog panels that are 1"x6". This is my first go @ raising chickens so I wanted some opinions on if this is a safe brooder for the next couple weeks while their permanent home gets completed? The door is sturdy, but not impenetrable. I'll have a heat lamp, plywood flooring w straw, water/food. Love in Georgia & the weather is cool right now (75/50F but fluctuations) Mostly I'm concerned w their safety. Any opinions?
 

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Is that porch screened in? If not you might want to put hardware cloth around the cage or flexi glass so no rodents or animal can eat them from the sides of cage. For four 5 wks olds that cage will be too small for them quick. I normally brood mine in cardboard boxes and add another boxes as they grow up to 8 wks if I can’t move them fast enough to coop and protect the top from predators and discard the boxes when am done. I’ll attach photos of mine if I can find it.
 
:welcome

It's gonna get real tight in there for 4, plus the food and water. If the chicks are 5 weeks old, they should be off heat, so you shouldn't need the heat lamp. Put cardboard around the base also, to hold the straw in, if you weren't gonna do that already. I would personally use wood shavings, it will be cleaner than straw. If you have 1/2" hardware cloth, you could attach that to the sides temporally.
 
View attachment 1300719 View attachment 1300718 View attachment 1300717 Is that porch screened in? If not you might want to put hardware cloth around the cage or flexi glass so no rodents or animal can eat them from the sides of cage. For four 5 wks olds that cage will be too small for them quick. I normally brood mine in cardboard boxes and add another boxes as they grow up to 8 wks if I can’t move them fast enough to coop and protect the top from predators and discard the boxes when am done. I’ll attach photos of mine if I can find it.
 

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