Quote: During the roughly first 12 weeks, you can actully see the chicks grow. They make remarkable changes in the first weeks. Then the become rather scraggly teenagers. I must admit that I love to watch them grow. I have a 4x4 pen that I set up in my garage. So far most chicks thrive in the environment. I too have had a very close neighbor loose all their chicken to a fire caused by the wrong type of light. It was limited to their newly built coop,at least.
This past spring I finally set up 30 meat bird chicks in an area of my chickens run. The chicks were more than happy to stay under the warm lamp.
I have used a 46 gal bow front aquarium to brood chicks in. It works for 4 to 6 chicks, for about the first 3 weeks or so. After a few weeks of having your chicks inside your house, you will begin to notice a fairly high volume of white dust. It isn't very good to breath in the dust. So for me I try to limit the time the chicks live in the house.