Wool hen, but maybe snow?!?!

[beela]

Just wanted to come in with an update, chicks are doing great, and integration with the older flock members has been a breeze with the advice from other members threads about brooding outside/early integration. Here is a shot of their chick yard in the main run. They were able to pop under the chicken wire at a few different spots. We took the fencing down this week because some of the chicks have gotten so big that the openings for them to come out are big enough for the older birds to go in. Hahahaha.

We turned the huddle boxes ( there are 2) around so that the big girls can't fit in under the opening, and put them up on bricks so that the smaller chicks can get under and hide if they are being picked on.
The other thing I wanted to mention on this thread is that we have been doing deep bedding inside the coops and it has made a demonstrable difference in temperature for the small coop (I'm sure it's working in the big coop, but I don't have a thermometer in there. ) You can put your hand in and turn it a bit and reach warm temps from the composting breakdown of the bedding/poop. AND, we use deep litter composting in the run which has meant enough heat generation from the ground to keep the water from freezing during the day.
So, there we are heading into our 3rd (I can't believe I'm saying this) stretch of week-long freezing temps and snow threats.

 

[RezChamp]

I live where it gets cold. Like -50*C sometimes. This year so far we've only got to -41*C so not too too bad.
Anyways, last year we had a eletricity failure at the least convenient time....of course. I had just invested over $500.00 in chickens turkeys flicks and geese
Some were for the table, some were for eggs and of course there's alway the odd "cute" my youngest dotr and my grandotrs wanted to name, and cuddle and...
When the power hadn't been re-established an hour later and getting word from the company I found 4 roughly 1foot diameter'ish' dense/fine grained granite rocks and made a fire. When the rocks were really good&warm (not red hot)I put them in a large canner and covered it. I put fibreglass insulation on the bottom of a 20 gallon drum that had the top 1/2 cut off, placed the canner inside then stuffed more insulation all around btween the canner and the drum, capped it with a piece of 1/2" plywood held in lace by another 20 lb rock and put in in the coop. It was still warm at 530 the next morning.
The outside temp was +2*C.
I was already splitting kindling for another "rock heating fire"when the kitchen light came on.

 

[LaurieL]

It rarely gets below 10* here even at night in the winter. I have chicks ordered to arrive mid-April. They will be in a brooder inside the (6’x8’) coop. For the brooder, I got an extra large wire dog crate around which I’ll put a wide strip of cardboard to keep out drafts. I plan on using a ceramic 120w heat bulb (that produces only heat, not light) for the first couple of weeks. After that, they will rely on a wool hen I’m making. For this, I got an extra small wire dog crate (actually it turned out to be a small size so I cut it down a couple of inches) as a frame for a wool hen. I’m tying strips of wool blanket from the top inside, then covering it with another wool blanket. The whole thing should just fit inside one end of the big crate with the sides keeping the blanket snuggly in place. I’ve read all I can find on wool hens and everything I’ve read says wool works best for insulation as fleece, styrofoam, and other materials don’t hold the heat as well.

 

[beela]

Hey Laurie, wool has worked pretty well for us. Even the few days that first week that the girls were in the house we didn't need supplemental heat for our chicks above and beyond the wool hen. If your babies are arriving in april what are your temps supposed to be like? How many chicks do you have coming, and is this your first go round with chicks? You may not even need the heat lamp at all depending on circumstances. I would say that based on our experiences I will be modifying our wool hen to have solid sides and at least 2 entry/exit points. I think we would have had zero problems if our winter had stayed as mild as we had expected, and as it stands we still made it to this point without any heat lamp use. I feel confident in using this method in the future ( I will not be starting in december though! hahahaha)

 

[saysfaa]

Also, (I know i am essentially talking to myself here, but this info might be helpful to someone else in a few months/years if they search wool hen) ...

It is. Thank you.