Hi, I'm picking up some 9 week old barred rocks on the weekend, I live in southern Ontario and the weather is calling for temperatures around -1 Celsius, just wondering what would be alright to keep them in while driving in the back of my pick up truck, it's a 20 minute drive from breeder to my farm, I have a dog crate but I'm worried that the wind may harm them
Wrap a tarp around the dog crate to block the wind (don't make it completely air-tight though!). Put a few inches of bedding in the bottom that they can hunker down together in. At 9 weeks old they should be fully feathered and do fine as long as you can keep the wind off of them. If you just have a few birds, you can put them in a cardboard box with holes up in the cab.
A lot depends on the temperature of the environment the pullets will be coming from. If they've been indoors at "room temp", riding in the back of an open pickup is going to be extremely stressful. If they've been living outside with no heat, then just blocking the wind will be enough, and they will be okay. If it were me, though, I would figure out a way to transport them inside the truck cab.
