Reasons for Tossing Out Your Indoor Brooder and Start Raising Your Chicks Outdoors

I just got chickies and this was wonderful and helpful! I really appreciated you tossing out temperatures for reference. That helped a lot as to when to try this out and purchase chicks. I also liked your ideas and your set up. Very au natural and ecosystem friendly. Bravo!

We are doing this. Our 7 week old chicks are starting to want to roost with the big chickens and this has been a much better experience than indoor brooding in most ways. They didn't have any issues with temps in the teens under their brooder plate and are all doing quite well. We will never do it any other way! Thank you!!

Well done and great food for thought. I hate my brooder in the garage and the chicks running. These are great suggestions.

Brilliant article. This is so helpful in rationalizing how to grow chicks up in and out of the brooder. Lots of good strategies here.

Great post!

What a simple yet brilliant idea. I'll admit most of us have probably thought of this I know I have but so worried something Dreadful was going to happen if we did. Certainly won't miss the leftover dust that always occurs when you have an indoor brooder in some unused room.

I never thought about the issue of them being reached for from above- clearly a very basic innate Primal Fear I'm sure that's well programmed in their psyche so to speak. Anyway thanks for posting this I will definitely give it a try when the time comes.

Update: the only thought that came to me later is the safety of the chicks in the case of rodents Etc like rats at night?

This is a wonderfully written article full of logical explanations and fantastic suggestions on how to make this work! Awesome job! Now I only wish I could bring myself to let my babies out of my sight long enough to give it a try!

Found this very informing and makes sense! Never thought of the predator thing, but several times thought of how scary it must be to see this big person and hand swooping in to the babies. My girls are doing nicely and I always talk to them and try to always ease in to pick them up, but I like the idea of placing the brooder up higher. I also loved that garden window idea! How fun for them!

I’ve thought about going a different route with my next batch of babies and raising them in a separate area from the grownups..

Thank you for the great information. We started the new chicks outside in the pen but sectioned off with chicken wire from the flock. So adult hens and chicks see each other. We will try to let the chicks out to play with the the flock.

Excellent article, and very timely for us! As I understand the article, a heating element was still used in the run while the chicks were young. The term was a "heating pad cave". What exactly was that? Is it the blue and white thing in the picture? If so, was that an actual heating pad used that was draped over a box frame that was open on one side for the chicks to walk in? It also looked pretty short, as if the chicks would actually be touching the heating pad when in the "cave".

This was such great information and gave me the confidence to build a brooder near my coop and run and boot my new littles out around 2 weeks old. I can't believe how well they are thriving. They instantly loved it. I will never raise chicks in the house again after this. Thanks for a great article!

This is great Information! Thank you for taking the time to share your story! I would love to try this. I just got chicks from tractor supply, I didn’t get them from day 1, so I wonder if it would be ok to go ahead and start this method now? It’s mid summer here, I live in Pennsylvania. The heat wave just past and the temps are getting better with a high of 81 and a low of 66. Thank you again and hope to hear back.

This article makes heapa buncha sense and I wish I could duplicate it. My babies are in my Ladie Lair; i.e., sewing studio room turned brooder inside a play pen for small animals. It has mesh on top and upper sides for them to see through. But through to what . . . junk in my sewing room. Ugghhh.

I need to figure out how to implement something of this article for them (and future) chicks. We are building their coop in stages so for now brooding in coop is not possible.


Due to the heat here we have put foil up on most of the windows including the one in their brooder room. Perhaps I should remove it and for much of the day have it open where they can see out. But they won't see people, simply grass and trees.


I dunno this sec; but I am going to come up with something to help them out.

Thanks so much for this beyond thoughtful information.

Exceptional article!!!! Your brooding methods clearly meet the needs of chicks. As humans, we often think we are helping them, but in reality, we are hurting them in the long run.
This is a MUST READ for all chicken owners!

A lot of useful information for me. Thanks so much for this great article and also for the photos.

Excellently informative essay! This is my plan with the eggs in the incubator. Way back in the day there were no brooders indoors. All things poultry were outside. If it got below 32, they were either put in the hay barn or in the "house" (cabin). There were no heating pads, feed and water bottles designed for chicks. Getting poultry raising back to its simpler roots! Thank you for sharing!!

Brilliant.
I’m hoping to turn around some of my chicks from being afraid of me by changing the height of the brooder.
thank you!

Fantastic. I raised a few batches of week old chicks in the house. The last batch I made a new brooder in the garage- hardware cloth sides. These chicks are just like yours and now also thriving in my barn grow up coop. I can't wait to read the heating pad thing because that's what I've been using! I wrap it in a plastic table cloth fresh for each batch, and tape it inside the roof of a shoe box. They love the warm cave. This really affirmed my gut instincts and I'll continue to raise bold, friendly, and healthy chicks in this manner.

That was a wonderful article!