Where do you keep your chicks?

[aoxa]

I use a playpen in the basement. I wouldn't keep 12 in it past 2 weeks though. They should have room to exercise without bumping into a hatch mate.

I can raise 6 comfortably until week 6 in a playpen.




For winter I raise them in the basement until they are feathered out completely, then they go to the barn with a heat lamp until they are roughly 10 weeks old. It's -40F out with windchill.

I have a bunch of 9 week olds in the barn in a brooder I made, and more in our house in the basement. I've sworn off hatching until the end of February. At that time, chicks will go directly to the barn. I will be hatching upwards of 100 birds every other week. Maybe more. They will have a lot of huddle room to keep warm in addition to the heat lamps. They'll have a part of the barn that is currently used for sheep.

 

[debid]

They had a heat lamp and the box had 2' walls so the air was calm around them even during thunderstorms. The porch is on the south side of the house and has a roof so I had to move the box for them to get any sun. I had two lid setups-- one was 50/50 wood/wire and the other was all wire. That allowed lots of flexibility to adjust the ventilation and let heat escape.

 

[From the North]

I doubt you'll have room in an aquarium for that many. I used a wooden box with hardware cloth on the hinged & locking lid out on a covered porch. 10 were a tight squeeze in a 4x2 box by 6 weeks. I was supposed to be moving them to the coop with their lamp by 4 weeks -- should have planned for delays...

hmm, 4x2 is the size of my aquarium. Maybe I will have to split them into two brooders at some point.

Is there a rule of thumb for size of brooder vs number of chicks?

 

[aoxa]

hmm, 4x2 is the size of my aquarium. Maybe I will have to split them into two brooders at some point.

Is there a rule of thumb for size of brooder vs number of chicks?

I've read 1 square foot per chick until they go outside.

That's about right for 8 chicks.

 

[PenelopeFlys]

We're brand new to chickens and we started ours out in a average size cardboard box from the local feed store we got them in and then moved them to a large plastic storage tub type bins at about a week and a half. We've had a heat lamp clipped securely to a nearby piece of furniture making sure it's been warm enough in there with a taped thermometer inside the box. Now they will be 3 wks (-+a few days) by this Saturday. They are all healthy and seem to be doing well. Every now and then I come home and find 2 or 3 of them perching on the top edge of the bin now that they are starting to roost ( I think) I've laid newspaper around the bin since they sometimes poop inside or outside of the bin when they're perched on the edge. I also have a shih tzu who hangs out in the house, but he doesn't bother them, he sticks his nose to sniff them, but neither chick or pooch seem to mind. Being brand new to this, I'm just sharing my new found experience and so far love every minute of it. We handle them everyday at the advice of the feed store owner and so far I think it has made a difference in their personality. They seemed to "know" the sound of my voice and my one Brahma, my fav seems to come to me every time. Hope this helps! They are so much fun!

 

[Ridgerunner]

hmm, 4x2 is the size of my aquarium. Maybe I will have to split them into two brooders at some point.

Is there a rule of thumb for size of brooder vs number of chicks?

It depends some on sex and a lot on how old they are before they go outside. Bantam or full sized makes a difference too. At around 4 to 5 weeks, cockerels need more space than pullets. I think it also matters how many total you have.

I've kept 28 mostly pullets in a 3’ x 5’ brooder until they were 4 weeks old. I’ve kept 21 mostly cockerels in the same brooder for the same amount of time. Both sets were getting a bit crowded but were doing OK. If I were keeping them in there longer, I’d want more room.

I’ll try to explain what I mean by the total being important. I’ll use some unrealistic numbers just to make the math easier. The actual numbers would be fractions and that gets complicated for me.

Assume one chicken physically takes up 1 square foot in the coop. If you have 4 square feet per chicken total and you have 4 chickens, then you have 16 total square feet and the chickens take up 4 square feet of that. That leaves 12 square feet for them to explore. If instead of 4 chickens you have 20 and they still have 4 square feet per chicken and they occupy 1 square feet each. Then you have 80 square feet in the coop, the chickens take up 20 square feet of that, so they have 60 square feet available to explore.

What this saying is that the more chickens you have the less square feet you probably need per chicken. But what it is really saying is that the rules of thumb are not exact. If you have fewer chickens they may put you in a bit of a bind. You have to have enough chickens for averages to mean much and the rules of thumb to be reasonable. If you go to extremes one either end, then they don’t mean as much. In a smaller brooder, the feeder and waterer take up a larger percent of the available room too.

For a reasonable number of chicks, ½ a square foot per chick until they are maybe 4 to 5 weeks old is reasonable. After that, I’d give them more. If you can give them more, it won’t hurt them. But mine are normally out of the brooder and have a lot more room by 5 weeks so I don’t have any good experience trying to squeeze then into less space after that age. I generally don’t try to shoehorn the maximum number in an available space but try to provide extra whether in the brooder, coop, or run.

 

[AmpersatChick]

Ridgerunner, we're in the same territory so that info is perfect for me! I'm in Rogers, (technically Little Flock if you're familiar).

 

[Ridgerunner]

Ridgerunner, we're in the same territory so that info is perfect for me! I'm in Rogers, (technically Little Flock if you're familiar).

 

Can't say I've ever been there but yeah, I know where it is. I have relatives out near War Eagle. I'm south of Fayetteville near Prairie Grove. There are several people in our area on this Arkansas thread. You might want to check it out.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/37675/arkansas-folks-speak-up/6140

I put 30 eggs in the incubator this past Tuesday. When they hatch, they will go in my brooder in the coop. I really don't worry about the cold. You know what February can be like here. I'll just keep one end of my brooder warm and let the rest cool off. I'm confident they will be fine. Yours in May should be a breeze.

 

[aoxa]

Can't say I've ever been there but yeah, I know where it is. I have relatives out near War Eagle. I'm south of Fayetteville near Prairie Grove. There are several people in our area on this Arkansas thread. You might want to check it out.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/37675/arkansas-folks-speak-up/6140

I put 30 eggs in the incubator this past Tuesday. When they hatch, they will go in my brooder in the coop. I really don't worry about the cold. You know what February can be like here. I'll just keep one end of my brooder warm and let the rest cool off. I'm confident they will be fine. Yours in May should be a breeze.

What do you mean your weather is like? I just checked out of curiosity.. Geez Louise. I'd give you my best laying hens for that weather!

 

[Ridgerunner]

In February I may be planting stuff in my garden. Or we may have an ice storm with the weather around zero Fahrenheit for several days and no electricity. AmpersatChick will get chicks in May. That's a lot more predictable here than February.

I know you are in Canada, but don't go bragging about your weather compared to mine this summer. I won't pay any attention if you try.