Temperature question mama hen with 3 week old chicks

[ZeeuwR]

I have a mama hen who hatched four chicks three weeks ago. She is currently in a large dog crate in my spare bedroom. I would like to move them into my basement where I can give them a much larger brooder pen since the poor mama is going stir crazy.

The temperature in my basement is 55 degrees. The brooder would be a 3 person tent with cardboard under it to insulate it a bit from the cement floor, and I will put a thick layer of pine shavings inside. I also have a cozy coop heater panel that will be in there also.

Do you all think they will be warm enough? The room they are in has been at 70 degrees, but I’ve turned off the heat to start getting them acclimated to cooler temperatures.

Any and all advice is appreciated.

 

[azygous]

The broody and her chicks require no extra heat. She is the heat source. Three week old chicks will not want heat during the day, and will be fine at 55F.

Your broody does require grit. See to it she is getting it or you will have big problems.

 

[ZeeuwR]

The broody and her chicks require no extra heat. She is the heat source. Three week old chicks will not want heat during the day, and will be fine at 55F.

Your broody does require grit. See to it she is getting it or you will have big problems.

Thank you for the advice. I have been giving her grit.

I’m too much of a worrier for sure. 55 seems so cold to me for those little babies. lol

 

[azygous]

That's balmy for chicks with feathers. It's even balmy for new chicks still in down. I raise day-old chicks in my enclosed run, and at 55, they aren't using their heat source at all. Keep in mind that while chicks are consuming calories during the day, they have their inner furnaces going full blast. It's only at night, when they aren't eating, they need supplemental heat at that temp.

 

[ZeeuwR]

That's balmy for chicks with feathers. It's even balmy for new chicks still in down. I raise day-old chicks in my enclosed run, and at 55, they aren't using their heat source at all. Keep in mind that while chicks are consuming calories during the day, they have their inner furnaces going full blast. It's only at night, when they aren't eating, they need supplemental heat at that temp.

I’m worried also about shocking them by moving them to that cooler temperature. I turned the heat off in my spare room and the temp only dropped 3 degrees. I just cracked the window to ease the temperature down. It’s only 15 outside . I don’t want to move them until I see them happy at closer to the basement temp.

 

[azygous]

Your fears are completely unfounded. It's not like the chicks are all on their own. If they need heat that broody hen is right there for them to snuggle under.

 

[rosemarythyme]

They probably would've been ok outside from the start, but since you have them in a very warm setting, you now need to ease them back into outdoor temperatures. So the baesment is fine WITHOUT the heat plate. The hen alone is enough to provide heat for the chicks without your help and I can't blame her for being a little crazy at being locked up inside for 3 weeks.

Like azygous I raise chicks outdoors and even without a hen 2-3 day olds are fine with ambient temps around mid-40s (which is about as low as it gets in May for me). Your chicks are already 3 weeks old, so even without a hen I'd be weaning them off heat sooner rather than later.

Also I assume you have a flock? How are you planning to integrate mama and the babies back in? Since she's been gone so long she's no longer going to be accepted as a flock member, and once she's weaned the chicks (which can be anywhere from 4 weeks or so and up) she also won't protect them from other birds either.

 

[ZeeuwR]

They probably would've been ok outside from the start, but since you have them in a very warm setting, you now need to ease them back into outdoor temperatures. So the baesment is fine WITHOUT the heat plate. The hen alone is enough to provide heat for the chicks without your help and I can't blame her for being a little crazy at being locked up inside for 3 weeks.

Like azygous I raise chicks outdoors and even without a hen 2-3 day olds are fine with ambient temps around mid-40s (which is about as low as it gets in May for me). Your chicks are already 3 weeks old, so even without a hen I'd be weaning them off heat sooner rather than later.

Also I assume you have a flock? How are you planning to integrate mama and the babies back in? Since she's been gone so long she's no longer going to be accepted as a flock member, and once she's weaned the chicks (which can be anywhere from 4 weeks or so and up) she also won't protect them from other birds either.

For some reason I just saw your response. The temps here have been really cold. Single digits when they were born which is why I brought them in to hatch.

We have a small flock. She is usually with four other hens and a rooster. I have one of those cheap little coop/run combos inside my chicken run to use for flock integration. I will be moving the mama and babes out into that for a week or so before allowing them to mingle. (Or as long as it seems necessary by the flock’s behavior)

They are all still in my basement, they will be six weeks tomorrow, and we are close to being fully feathered, but tomorrow night the low is 9 degrees, so I’m still not sure I should put them outside yet. After that it looks like 23 is the lowest it will be over the next ten days with day time highs being 35 to 55.

When I talked to my favorite employee at the farm store, he thought I should plan on keeping them inside another month or so.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Only issue with delaying integration is at some point, the mama will wean the chicks and will no longer protect them when you try integrating the chicks with the flock. So yes you may be looking at a late integration where they're closer to adult size, with possibly a separate integration for the hen before that (depending on how she interacts with the chicks), which is a slightly different issue.