Yesterday we moved the 11 chicks into the brooder in the shed.
Last year we hatched much later, and the chicks were in the outside brooder at 3 days old. This year it's much colder outside (although of course the temperature in the brooder is just the same) so we delayed until the chicks were a week old.
There's plenty of room in the brooder for them, and they have both the heatlamp and the electric hen. I really like the Electric hen, it's much better than the lamp, imitates nature a bit more.
In previous years we've used some hardboard to make a brooding ring. It's worked really well, but it was getting harder to clean and disinfect. This year we bought a plastic brooding ring, which will be easier to clean and disinfect, and collapses to a smaller storage size than our previous home made one.
The chooks seem happy enough.
DH set up the camera agin so we can keep an eye on things from the house.
Last year we hatched much later, and the chicks were in the outside brooder at 3 days old. This year it's much colder outside (although of course the temperature in the brooder is just the same) so we delayed until the chicks were a week old.
There's plenty of room in the brooder for them, and they have both the heatlamp and the electric hen. I really like the Electric hen, it's much better than the lamp, imitates nature a bit more.
In previous years we've used some hardboard to make a brooding ring. It's worked really well, but it was getting harder to clean and disinfect. This year we bought a plastic brooding ring, which will be easier to clean and disinfect, and collapses to a smaller storage size than our previous home made one.
The chooks seem happy enough.
