The coop at night

[MikeTheGardener]

I didn't do anything for mine and they turned out fine. They seemed to have learned everything on their own.

 

[Chiks N Stiks]

Hello! I really like your way of brooding. I am new to chickens, well sort of. Growing up, my grandparents had chickens for a bit. We didn't do much for them at all. Yet, they managed...

So I just bought a lovely little group of chickies. I have 13. They have been staying in my house in my kitchen in a great big cardboard box -- with a lamp of course. But, I haven't been very happy about it. I don't mind them in the kitchen in the box. I just don't like the light on all night. Who wants to sleep with a light glaring in your eyes? And, they have no mamma. They are just running around. You solve that with your heating pad. I would love to see where your chicks live next -- after your brooder. I am about to send my outside. I have a "mamma" hen that I think will take to them well. I need to prep the outside area a little better. I'm looking for some good ideas of what to do next. Thank you!

 

[Chiks N Stiks]

Hello! I really like your way of brooding. I am new to chickens, well sort of. Growing up, my grandparents had chickens for a bit. We didn't do much for them at all. Yet, they managed...

So I just bought a lovely little group of chickies. I have 13. They have been staying in my house in my kitchen in a great big cardboard box -- with a lamp of course. But, I haven't been very happy about it. I don't mind them in the kitchen in the box. I just don't like the light on all night. Who wants to sleep with a light glaring in your eyes? And, they have no mamma. They are just running around. You solve that with your heating pad. I would love to see where your chicks live next -- after your brooder. I am about to send my outside. I have a "mamma" hen that I think will take to them well. I need to prep the outside area a little better. I'm looking for some good ideas of what to do next. Thank you!

 

[Blooie]

The video that I posted before was when the Littles first got here. They were supposed to have one day of inside observation then head out to the run to live the next morning. But Ken was suddenly hospitalized just a few hours after we got them home, which meant we were a day or two behind in getting the outside brooder set up. So as for where mine go after the brooder, since they are normally brooded right out in the run from the start, that's where they go. When it's time for integration I just prop open the door to their little pen within the big pen. In this video, the chicks in the first one were 2 weeks old and the new chicks were one week old. The one weekers went from bringing them home in the car straight to the outside brooder. They never saw the inside of the house.

This is their brooder inside the run.

 

[arkwelded]

I love the idea of the heat pad. Is it a normal household one? My brooder is outside too, and it would work great. Do you use a wire to support the pad? Do you raise the pad as the chocks get bigger?

 

[arkwelded]

I have to check on ours every night and this batch has ducks so they can't fly or get up the ramp to the roost at night so I have to put them in. we also bring them out to do supervised free range with the big ducks and chickens in the afternoons. the ducks are a week younger then the chicklets, they grow so fast

 

[Blooie]

I love the idea of the heat pad. Is it a normal household one? My brooder is outside too, and it would work great. Do you use a wire to support the pad? Do you raise the pad as the chocks get bigger?

Most heating pads we have laying around the house won't work for this. The majority of the newer ones have an "auto-shut off" built into them, so they turn themselves off after an hour or two of running, and that would mean turning it back on everytime it went off - not practical. The older ones can have brittle heating elements from age and being scrunched up and leaned on, so the fire risk reduction benefit is lost.

This thread has all of the information you will need, plus photos, videos, and some fantastic innovations contributed by people who are using the system. I will never do anything else for my chicks. Good luck!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/956958/mama-heating-pad-in-the-brooder-picture-heavy-update