Author: Anna & Mark

Robert
Plamondon puts his broilers out on pasture at two to three weeks old in
March when his section of Oregon has highs in the mid fifties and lows
in the high thirties — a bit chilly weather to leave youngsters
unprotected.  So he developed insulated pasture
hovers that keep the
chicks warm without electricity.



The hovers consist of a
simple wooden frame coated in aluminized bubble insulation, then
suspended from the ceiling.  The insulation holds in the chicks’
body heat, so they stay warm enough at night just by huddling together
underneath.



I’ve been researching
ways to keep
chicks warm without electricity, and this hover sounds like
it’s right up my alley. I wonder if the addition of a heating mat,
either on the ground or in the hover itself, would be sufficient to
keep chicks warm at an even younger age?

(Those of you who have
raised chicks several times are probably bored by our chick
updates.  There’s nothing really startling going on yet, but we’ve
only raised chicks once before, so it’s relatively new territory for
us.  Feel free to skip these “they’re growing!” posts if you’re
not interested.  If you do like them and are a new reader, you can
see what our
chicks were doing in their first week here.)



By the end of week 2, our chicks got
spunky.  They already had the beginnings of wing feathers when I
posted last, but now they rounded out their full complement of
primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries and started making hop-flights
to test their wings.



On day 14 of their stay
in the brood box, I walked into their room and found an escaped chick
skittering across the floor.  The brood box that had originally
seemed so spacious was now a crowded mass of pecking, scratching
chicks, and they were clearly feeling cramped.  The next day, two
chicks got out, and Mark pushed through the abnormal spring heat to
make them a coop. 
As always, I’m thrilled by his ability to take a handful of screws and
some junk out of the barn and make a utilitarian piece of farm
equipment for just a few bucks.

We moved the chicks out
to their new coop when they were only 16 to 17 days old. 
Depending on who you talk to, you can put your chicks outside somewhere
between two and six weeks of age.  This is quite a wide variation
and will depend on two main factors.  Your weather is the obvious
one — if you’re raising chicks in the winter, you will clearly need
to keep them inside longer.  Sex is also important since cockerels
generally grow faster and are ready to go out on pasture much quicker
than pullets.  As a rule of thumb, chickens should have real
feathers, not just fluff, if you’re going to put them outside without a
light source.



Ours clearly haven’t
reached that stage yet, so I begged Mark to make a little protected
area within the large coop where the chicks could huddle together at
night.  He came up with an insulated box that will hold the heat
from the brooder lamp for another week or two while our chicks
mature.  With the extra heat to run to if they get cold, our
chicks adore their dirt-floored coop and are now taste-testing
everything within reach.  Sticks, stones, ants, and leaves all met
with approval, although I’m not sure if they are actually finding
anything with food value yet.



Next week —
pasture!  While you’re waiting, be sure check out our homemade chicken
waterer, perfect for
getting chicks off to a healthy start.