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Debbiebs1b
Chirping
- Aug 18, 2022
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Thanks!My 3 ft x 6 ft brooder in the coop looks pretty similar to that. The top is solid and acts as a dropping board from the roosts above. I made my brooder floor out of 1/2" hardware cloth so the poop drops through and it stays really dry. Once the chicks get to 10 to 12 weeks old the poop gets big enough that it doesn't drop through but mine are long gone by then. I put a piece of plywood where they sleep on the wire mesh floor to retain heat in colder weather. I dump it every day so the brooder stays clean and dry.
I put chicks in mine straight from the incubator or post office. I find they are really good at managing their heat as long as they have a choice. I'm one of those stone age caveman brutes that uses a heat lamp. I believe that if you use light chain or wire to hold it up so it can't fall that it is safe enough but any heat source can be a risk. I consider heating pads and heat plates to be very safe as long as they are maintained in good condition and used safely.
I heat one end of my brooder with the heat lamp and keep it toasty warm. Some winter mornings the far end may have ice or frost in it but that one end is kept warm. Your brooder has great ventilation with that wire mesh so the far areas will cool down, but in Florida this time of year and for the summer you do not want to overheat them. If you use a heat lamp I suggest you put a thermometer under it to see how warm it gets. Heat lamps often come with a 250 watt bulb but you may find you need a 150 watt or even a 75 watt bulb to keep from overheating them.
One summer in a brutal heat wave I turned the daytime heat off at 2 days and the overnight heat off at 5 days. It was so warm they did not need the heat.
I want my chicks exposed to whatever the flock may have as early as possible so they can get started on whatever flock immunities they may need. Many flocks have diseases or parasites that they have total immunity to (Coccidiosis is one example) but the chicks are vulnerable. I keep the brooder as dry as I can to reduce the risk of coccidiosis if they have it (my flock does so I'll use it as an example). On day 2 or 3 in the brooder I feed them some dirt from the run where the adults are and then feed them some more every 3 or 4 days. After three weeks the chicks should have developed an immunity to it so they are safe.
If the chicks are mailed from a major hatchery they should be very safe as far as bringing in any diseases to your flock. Feed store chicks are pretty safe but chicken owners are in there every day and could possibly transmit something. If you hatch them yourself in an incubator they should be pretty safe, very few diseases are transmitted though the eggs. If you get the chicks from somebody else they may have anything that other flock has.
I want my new chicks exposed as soon as possible but mine come from a major hatchery or I hatch them myself. The chicks can start developing whatever immunities they need from the main flock. If you get them from another person and do not consider them safe you might want to raise them in your house in quarantine for a month before you expose them to your chickens to be safer.
The others are doing well. Will keep them inside til I know they are strong and healthy. I am using a heating pad and a side lamp outside the brooder hardware cloth to keep it warm. My husband is concerned about the heating pad which starts blinking on and off every 2 hours. What kind of heating pad are y'all using? We don't want to burn our house down.
I have 1 in my indoor brooder that they use for 1-2 weeks, then 1 in my coop brooder that they use after that. around 3-5 weeks old (normally 2-3 weeks after they go out to the coop brooder) I open chick doors that I have in my coop brooder so they can go out and in but the big ones can't get in so they have a place to run if they need to. Also have spots in the run they can hide if they need to. so they start venturing around the coop and eventually the run. I have some now that are 5 weeks old and have been running around the coop and run for just over a week. Yes every now and then a big one will peck them but they don't attack just one peck the baby yells and runs away and that is the end of it. SOOOOO much easier trying to integrate them this way! Mine still go into their brooder at night, most times just sleep on top of the MHP but may go under it but it is on a VERY low setting now so barely any heat. We have had a couple of "chilly" days (low 50's) and the chicks stay out in the run and don't go to the heating pad.
