haybrooder experiment

[firstlight]

So..I put my cornish x chicks outside the morning I got them from the post office.

I created a u shape with strawbales, and a "gate" to keep them in the 'strawbale brooder'. I placed the bales on top of reflective bubblewrap insulation and wrapped the brooder completely so the insulation overlapped. Then I put some haybales on top. For the first 2 weeks i put hot water bottles in the brooder starting at about 9pm.

I let the chicks climb out of the brooder into their larger 12x16 compost area as they had the strength to hop the tilted gate during the day. Some were out by day 3 and all were out by day 5. The first 3 weeks I "locked" the chicks in the strawbale brooder from about 10pm to 5am. Week 4 they go in and out 24/ 7 as they please, fully free ranging our property. I have found them more than 100yds from their brooder past our driveway.

They arrived June 12th and I've only lost one so far. I've never raised cornish x in anything like free range but I suspect from my reading that they have taken a growth hit with these conditions, though supposedly they should catch up to their brooder raised mates before slaughter. I prefer game hen size so we'll see how that works against me.

Has anyone else tried "alternative brooding?"

 

[firstlight]

also, started with 26 chicks so they would have some group heat. Also added 11 day old ducklings week 2.

 

[lomine]

So you didn't provide any kind of heat source? Do you have any pictures?

 

[firstlight]

I did fill hot water bottles to put in the brooder at night those first few weeks. It's amazing how much their bodies keep the space heated since it's so insulated. I will get some pictures together, its very simple once you see it.

 

[lomine]

Interesting. I look forward to see the pictures as I'm having a hard time picturing it in my head.

 

[Maeschak]

I don't think this qualifies as 'alternative brooding' but I had a batch of 27 chicks born mid June and popped them into an outside brooder with my version of a huddle box/momma heating pad. (For the first week I used a dog large dog crate and sided it with just cardboard after that they went into a hoop coop with some hay bales in a U shape along w the heated huddle box if they wanted it). The night temps only got down to about 70 but I was shocked that my chicks never used the huddle box/heating pad set up once. Instead they formed this little 'raft' of chicks huddled up to the corners of the dog crate/cardboard every night. Once they got into the hoop coop they 'rafted' again in a corner. Never lost a single chick and my pasty butt was down this year.
I knew that the chicks would be helping to 'heat' each other and that having 3/4 sides around them would help keep heat in- but if baby chicks need 95 degree temps at times (particularly when sleeping) and it got down to 70 at night- I had no idea they could create and keep in 25 degrees of heat between them all. Anyway, great experiment. Maybe I will ditch the huddle/heat box next year and try hot water bottles.