So I have a confession. I did something slightly crazy this fall, three weeks after coming home from Polyface, I decided to get chicks.
Brooding Chicks in the Winter
Now, why in the world did I want to brood and have to care for chicks in the winter? Well, I love farm fresh eggs and if I wanted to get chicks till the spring, I wouldn’t be getting my own eggs until the fall. And that just didn’t seem like a good idea.
So I brooded the chicks inside our insulated shop here and gave them a nice heat lamp. They’re super, super cozy. But today is the day they are moving from the warmth into the cold, from the brooder out to the coop.
So there’s 20 of them. It’s like 37 degrees next week it plumets, so I was like, now is the time.
Now that I’ve moved them into the coop let’s check on them.
They look great, they’re wondering around, so they don’t seem cold at all so that’s good. They’ve got some water, they’ve got some food, they’ve got some heat. And they are just loving this.
Cold Weather with Chicks in the Coop
So we have had a cold snap this past week. This is about two weeks after moving the chicks out and we’ve had highs in the low single digits and lows well below zero.
And this is what I was nervous about when I put the chicks outside. I was really curious to see how they did, so let’s go check on them.
Wow. Look at them. They did absolutely fantastic, so there were a few things that I think really contributed to the success of moving from the brooder to the coop.
How Were the Chicks Able to Survive Sub-Zero Temperatures?
Supplemental Heat Source
Number one, I did have to supplement heat in the coop, so I have a sweeter heater panel heater.
That’s what I typically use for my laying hens over the winter, and then I also put in a heat lamp. I’m going to slowly wean them off the heat lamp, but I just wanted them to have a little extra warm.
Coop Insulation
Number two, our coop is very well insulated, so it naturally holds heat. There’s a lot of insulation in the walls and in the ceiling, and so it keeps warm in very easily. If you don’t have coop insulation, you can also use hay or straw bedding which works surprisingly well.
Wait for the Chicks to Develop Their Feathers
Number three, I also waited until the birds are older than normal to move them out of the coop, so instead of the typical three or four weeks, I waited till they were six weeks old. This meant that they were fully feathered and could regulate their own body temperature a lot better.
Heated Water
And then finally, I made sure to have heated water in there. Now, if I put water under the heat lamp area, it would probably say nice and thawed without it, but I wanted them to move around a little bit more.
And with the heated water, the water’s a nice warm temperature that makes the chicks more likely to drink.
Because of all those things I think the transition was super smooth and I’m really excited to see how the rest of the winter goes. So only a few more months. I finally have my own eggs for breakfast again. I am super excited. Thanks for following along.
