I'm very big on raising them as naturally as possible too. I've actually found that chicks never need that 95 degree the first week, 90 the second and so on wisdom. I did that the first time with my heat lamp raised, indoor raised chicks and I evicted them at 5.5 weeks, determined I would find a way to never - EVER - have to raise chicks that way again. When I started working on Mama Heating Pad, a friend asked me what the temperature was under the cave. I didn't know - I'd never measured it. Didn't need to. The chicks were perfectly content and healthy and had been since I got them and they WERE my thermometer. But in order to answer her question and satisfy my curiosity, I put a wireless temperature transmitter under there. The temperature was 85.2 degrees in a 69 degree room. WHAT??? My chicks should have been dead instead of doing better than any chicks I'd ever raised using a lamp!
Now I use Mama Heating Pad exclusively, and start all of my chicks outside. Put most simply, it's a human heating pad draped over a wire frame with a towel on top. Done and done. It doesn't heat the entire space they are in, it just works by warming the chicks directly. They have a warm, dark, soft place to snuggle under when THEY want it - I'm not forcing some book or expert's idea of how to raise chicks on them. I learned this by watching the REAL experts - a mother broody hen. The only warm spot for her chicks is under her. She has no nightlights under her wing for them so they don't get light 24/7. Most of the time they are running around outside exploring and learning to be chickens. If they get a little chilly or spooked they duck under her for a quick warm-up or security, then they pop right back out, even when there's still a little snow on the ground. Chicks aren't eating 24/7, and when you think about how immature their little digestive systems still are, Mother Nature was pretty smart to design things this way. As the sun goes down they find her, snuggle under, around or on top of her, and sleep all night, waking up with her and the sun. A 2 pound hen can do it without experts, books, charts and all that stuff. The only difference between MHP and a broody hen is that the chicks never have to look for her when they need her - she's always in the same spot.
I always wonder, why do we do it so differently and think we're doing it better? Fact is, we aren't necessarily doing it better. We raise the lamp or lower the lamp, heat the entire brooder, lower the bulb wattage or put in a bigger bulb, check the charts, fuss, hover, and then we have to put them outside and totally transition them (and us) to a new normal. That's a lot to ask from those little dudes - and our own nerves! It gets dark out there. It's noisy. Shadows are different and threatening. Temperatures are different. We're constantly running out there to stuff them in the coop at night, then take them back out of the coop and move them into the run in the morning. We grab them and put them up the roosts because we think they're supposed to be up there instead of just letting them discover the roosting for themselves. And often there are older birds out there so then there's the issue of integrating almost grown chicks in with them, which rarely goes without incident.
My chicks are around the adults their entire lives. Feeders are side by side, one on the adult side, and one on the chick's side of the wire enclosure so that they learn to feed peacefully head-to-head. Same with the water. I toss a line of scratch along the dividing wire on both sides, again reinforcing the "sharing food" aspect of having them eat together. When they are 3 weeks old I open the portal doors to the run and they start mingling with the adults at their own pace and comfort level. They have pretty much taken themselves off the heat, although it's there and on the lowest setting if they want it - their choice. I gently herd them into their brooder pen a few times until I'm sure they can find their way to safety if they need to but the Bigs can't follow. I have a few hidey holes scattered around in case they are too far from the brooder pen. I close the portal doors at night. I don't have to herd them in anymore because they know where to go when the sun starts going down. By 4 weeks old the doors are open all the time. At the end of that 4th week the brooder comes out completely and they are on their own - no brooder to run to, no heat whatsoever. By that age they wouldn't all fit under a broody hen anymore anyway.
I should add that when I'm doing all this, it's "chick season" all over the country...springtime. But springtime here means temps still in the twenties, dropping into the teens with snow storms and high Wyoming winds. They thrive despite what conventional wisdom preaches. So yep, going as natural as can be is the only way I'll ever raise them.
Now I use Mama Heating Pad exclusively, and start all of my chicks outside. Put most simply, it's a human heating pad draped over a wire frame with a towel on top. Done and done. It doesn't heat the entire space they are in, it just works by warming the chicks directly. They have a warm, dark, soft place to snuggle under when THEY want it - I'm not forcing some book or expert's idea of how to raise chicks on them. I learned this by watching the REAL experts - a mother broody hen. The only warm spot for her chicks is under her. She has no nightlights under her wing for them so they don't get light 24/7. Most of the time they are running around outside exploring and learning to be chickens. If they get a little chilly or spooked they duck under her for a quick warm-up or security, then they pop right back out, even when there's still a little snow on the ground. Chicks aren't eating 24/7, and when you think about how immature their little digestive systems still are, Mother Nature was pretty smart to design things this way. As the sun goes down they find her, snuggle under, around or on top of her, and sleep all night, waking up with her and the sun. A 2 pound hen can do it without experts, books, charts and all that stuff. The only difference between MHP and a broody hen is that the chicks never have to look for her when they need her - she's always in the same spot.
I always wonder, why do we do it so differently and think we're doing it better? Fact is, we aren't necessarily doing it better. We raise the lamp or lower the lamp, heat the entire brooder, lower the bulb wattage or put in a bigger bulb, check the charts, fuss, hover, and then we have to put them outside and totally transition them (and us) to a new normal. That's a lot to ask from those little dudes - and our own nerves! It gets dark out there. It's noisy. Shadows are different and threatening. Temperatures are different. We're constantly running out there to stuff them in the coop at night, then take them back out of the coop and move them into the run in the morning. We grab them and put them up the roosts because we think they're supposed to be up there instead of just letting them discover the roosting for themselves. And often there are older birds out there so then there's the issue of integrating almost grown chicks in with them, which rarely goes without incident.
My chicks are around the adults their entire lives. Feeders are side by side, one on the adult side, and one on the chick's side of the wire enclosure so that they learn to feed peacefully head-to-head. Same with the water. I toss a line of scratch along the dividing wire on both sides, again reinforcing the "sharing food" aspect of having them eat together. When they are 3 weeks old I open the portal doors to the run and they start mingling with the adults at their own pace and comfort level. They have pretty much taken themselves off the heat, although it's there and on the lowest setting if they want it - their choice. I gently herd them into their brooder pen a few times until I'm sure they can find their way to safety if they need to but the Bigs can't follow. I have a few hidey holes scattered around in case they are too far from the brooder pen. I close the portal doors at night. I don't have to herd them in anymore because they know where to go when the sun starts going down. By 4 weeks old the doors are open all the time. At the end of that 4th week the brooder comes out completely and they are on their own - no brooder to run to, no heat whatsoever. By that age they wouldn't all fit under a broody hen anymore anyway.
I should add that when I'm doing all this, it's "chick season" all over the country...springtime. But springtime here means temps still in the twenties, dropping into the teens with snow storms and high Wyoming winds. They thrive despite what conventional wisdom preaches. So yep, going as natural as can be is the only way I'll ever raise them.
