What "stage 2" cage do you use before the chicken coop?

[ForTheLoveOfFarming]

Wh

Here is a pic. I agree don’t use a heat lamp. (Do as I say not as I do.). We have hardware cloth we place on top.

Yes it was free but I like the wood box above. View attachment 1305751

Why do people say NOT to use a heat lamp? Especially since so many people do? So confusing! What would be a better alternative?

 

[ForTheLoveOfFarming]

View attachment 1305491 View attachment 1305492 Ours are 3 weeks old today. We had to move them to stage 2 type living quarters too. 17 chicks are now in a 3’x6’ brooder in garage. Solid bottom and sides, and hardware cloth tops.

How difficult is it to clean such a large space out? Where are the chicks when you are cleaning? What is hardware cloth? I might try to make something like this.

 

[Acre4Me]

How difficult is it to clean such a large space out? Where are the chicks when you are cleaning? What is hardware cloth? I might try to make something like this.

This brooder is easy to clean- only one lid is open and we clean that side out, we just scoop out the bedding with an old square plastic container. Put fresh pine shavings, close that lid and do the other side. One side can flip down (as you can see in the pic where it is empty), if I just wanted to empty it that way. The chicks will make themselves scarce by running to the opposite end of where I am cleaning and they stay till I begin working on the other side! The flooring is smooth, and easy to clean and it also makes the bottom smooth as the extra wood we had laying around was planks and not a single sheet of something like plywood.

Hardware cloth is the welded wire that comes on a roll. Easy to find in the garden area of any big box home improvement store. A better price is often found online, and some have indicated getting it very cheap off Craig’s list or similar. Hardware cloth comes in a variety of sizes and thickness (gauge). Most say to use 1/2”x1/2”, but you can buy 1/4”, or 1/2”x1”, or larger. You will need heavy gloves (like leather) to handle hardware cloth. In our pic, we trimmed the cloth to size and sandwiched it between the wood so the edges were not exposed.

 

[junebuggena]

Wh

Why do people say NOT to use a heat lamp? Especially since so many people do? So confusing! What would be a better alternative?

Many people prefer alternatives like ceramic emitters made for reptiles, heating pads, or EcoGlows. Heat lamps inside the home produce way too much heat for chicks, making it very difficult to prevent overheating.

How difficult is it to clean such a large space out? Where are the chicks when you are cleaning? What is hardware cloth? I might try to make something like this.

Larger brooders don't need cleaned nearly as often as brooders that are too small. My chicks stay in the brooder while it's being cleaned. All that is really needed is the soiled bedding scooped out and replaced with fresh. It doesn't really need disinfected at all. Hardware cloth is a welded metal mesh.
This is an example of a heating pad cave in action. It's my prefered brooding method.

It does have its limits, though. It can handle about 20 chicks at a time. Right now, I've got 66 in the brooder, so the heat lamp had to come out.

I still have the heating pad in there, but lying flat so they can warm their bellies. With that many chicks, piling under the heating pad cave could kill the bantams. They just won't all fit under it.

 

[Ms Biddy]

We usually brood in a 2x6' stock tank. Up to about 20 chicks can stay there long enough to be transitioned outside to a rectangular chicken tractor that we use as a grow out pen. We've always used a heat lamp, however more recently I got a ceramic heating bulb. They have no filament and don't generate light. Supposedly safer than a heat lamp, but IDK. Next time I'll be trying the heating pad method and transitioning them outside much sooner. I did get a giant watermelon box from a grocery store once. It's a good idea to use those big boxes as brooders. They're cool.

 

[sylviethecochin]

Wh

Why do people say NOT to use a heat lamp? Especially since so many people do? So confusing! What would be a better alternative?

MHP is what many people like. It's actually called a Mama Heating Pad.

I use a heat lamp myself, but I brood in the unheated basement/mudroom, so the temperature, especially in the spring, has a really hard gradient across the box. At least ten degrees, often more like 15-20 less at the unheated end. (so, for example, 80 under the heat lamp, and 63 at the other end) And I keep the food at the unheated end so that they're forced to adjust. The gradient also allows them to regulate their own temperature--and when I notice that they're consistently sleeping towards the middle of the box, I move the heating lamp back.

A Mama heating pad does the same thing without the effort. It keeps one spot in the brooder warm, and the chicks have to venture out from under it to expose themselves to the cold and get food--exactly as they would under a hen, hence the name. It results in a far hardier chick.

Further, a Mama Heating pad doesn't emit light, so the chicks are less likely to be sleep-deprived by a constant incandescent light bulb. I have to use a red bulb and a small 'sleeping box' in the brooder to achieve the same effect.

Personally, I think heat lamps are far more versatile, but I can see why a MHP appeals to people who don't want to mess around with all the stuff I do (I'm a time-waster, I really am)

And heat lamps do have a higher fire risk.

 

[lazy gardener]

What is MHP?
On another note, what part of ME do you live in? I used to live in Bangor, Charleston, and Kenduskeag! My Dad still lives in Bangor and my sis in Holden.

I'm about 1/2 hour South of Bangor. I had family in Charleston. Spent many overnights visiting with my cousin there. Also, have cousins in Kenduskeag. My uncle owned RozDale farm in Kenduskeag. It was a dairy farm near the bridge and town library.

Why do people say NOT to use a heat lamp? Especially since so many people do? So confusing! What would be a better alternative?

The heat lamp is the "old stand by". What people don't realize is that typical chick brooding occurred in an outdoor barn or coop. Indoor brooding did not become fashionable until back yard flocks became fashionable. Unfortunately, feed stores sell 250W lamps to unsuspecting folks who then try to brood half a dozen chicks in a rubber maid tote in their 70* living room. The heat lamp was NEVER designed to be used for that purpose. Huge risk to the chicks due to overheating. Also not a healthy environment for the home owner due to the dander and floating fecal material.

How difficult is it to clean such a large space out? Where are the chicks when you are cleaning? What is hardware cloth? I might try to make something like this.

When I have chicks set up in a NICU brooder for a few days after shipment/hatch, I put them in an appliance box in my garage. I lay down a piece of plastic, cover that with some layers of cardboard for insulation, then set the appliance box on top. I always try to give them a space at least 3' x 6'. I do not clean this "brooder". Simply top it off with more shavings as needed. Studies show that chicks brooded on deep litter, have improved viability, improved feed conversion rates, decreased illness. However, the litter MUST be kept dry. Any water spills must be contained and cleaned up. Deep litter is even more beneficial if successive broods of chicks are brooded on litter used by previous broods.

All my chicks are brooded by a MHP set up. This is much more natural. The chicks are not sleep deprived, they get natural exposure to ambient air temps. They go to bed at dusk, sing themselves to sleep, and get up refreshed after a full night's sleep. One poster even found that using MHP resulted in his meat birds avoiding the many orthopedic problems that meat birds are prone to.

Many people prefer alternatives like ceramic emitters made for reptiles, heating pads, or EcoGlows. Heat lamps inside the home produce way too much heat for chicks, making it very difficult to prevent overheating.
This is an example of a heating pad cave in action. It's my prefered brooding method.View attachment 1306159
It does have its limits, though. It can handle about 20 chicks at a time. Right now, I've got 66 in the brooder, so the heat lamp had to come out. View attachment 1306164
I still have the heating pad in there, but lying flat so they can warm their bellies. With that many chicks, piling under the heating pad cave could kill the bantams. They just won't all fit under it.

I have brooded up to 50 chicks in my grow out coop with 2 MHP. Sunbeam XPress XL. I found the best configuration was to have them set up parallel to each other with about a 4" space between them.

If brooding more than 50 chicks, I think I'd build an Ohio brooder. I hate using a light to heat chicks, but the Ohio brooder at least contains the heat in a single area instead of throwing heat to the entire space like a heat lamp does. The Ohio brooder also is more conservative of your energy $$.

 

[Blooie]

This is how and why I totally skipped the indoor brooding (except for keeping them inside for a day or so to make sure none of them were suffering shipping or hatching stress, knew where to warm up, and were eating and drinking). However, if I'd picked them up from a local distributor, they came out of the car and were put into the outdoor brooder immediately.

The first video starts out dark intentionally, so be patient for a few seconds. It was my first time using MHP and I was learning and documenting as I went along. The chicks were supposed to go out the outdoor brooder a couple of days before we actually got them out there, but the night we got them hubby had to be taken to the ER and then spent a few days in the hospital, so they ended up inside longer than intended. In the second video, this different batch of chicks had their overnight stay inside, then out they went, as did every batch after that! No secondary brooders, no grow out pens, no issues with integration, and still had people friendly chicks......I just didn't have the mess in my house anymore!

 

[ForTheLoveOfFarming]

View attachment 1305491 View attachment 1305492 Ours are 3 weeks old today. We had to move them to stage 2 type living quarters too. 17 chicks are now in a 3’x6’ brooder in garage. Solid bottom and sides, and hardware cloth tops.

Why did you choose to use hardware cloth instead of chicken wire? I'm currently at the store trying to decide what to get to build mine!

 

[Rachealx4]

I just finished my stage 2 broder. It is large dog kennel with hardware cloth around the sides. (We have a cat inside so I thought that it would be a good idea.) I still have to put the water and a hanging feeder in. I'm debating on the ecoglow since they are inside and almost fully feathered.
I know that I'm going to have pine shavings everywhere, but it's the best I can do right now.
Thoughts or suggestions?