Tag: brooder

Adding Chicks of Different Ages to the Brooder

Sometimes size matters in the brooder, but there are ways to avoid and resolve the trouble. I added four new chicks to the brooder a week ago. Two blue and two silver laced six-day-old standard Cochins… and put them in the brooder with my three-week-old Silkie Bantams.
Age doesn’t matter much to baby chicks, size, however, can be reason enough to start a bully fest. The six-day-old Cochins were the same size as the Silkies, but now, a week later, the Cochins are substantially bigger. The size issue seems to go unnoticed when chicks are raised together, so they’ll continue to share the same brooder in harmony.
If new chicks refuse to get along, it’s easy enough to put a divider between the chicks, as long as they can see each other it will be pretty uneventful to reintroduce them in a week or so.

Leaving the Brooder

At two months these little fuzzy butts will be moved from the brooder to a transitional coop where they’ll be in full view of the existing flock. Around four or five months the coop door will open and they’ll have a choice to venture out and join the existing flock,  but they probably won’t for days, sometimes even a week! Then What?
It’s reality time, and their peaceful world comes to a screeching halt when they’re finally brave enough to step out and explore the real world. A world that is run by powerful chicken rulers who have earned their significant positions in the pecking order.
Learn More about the Pecking Order and Adding Chickens to an Existing Flock

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From Egg to Brooder, When to Move Chicks

From Egg Incubator to Brooder.
How to Move a Chick From One to the Other Safely.

by Raising Happy Chickens Read Article
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Solutions for Chicks Pecking Each Other

Let’s start at the beginning with chicks in the brooder. Chicks don’t just peck each other for lack of something to do. There is an underlying problem causing them stress and/or aggravation. As with any living creature, the first and foremost necessity for well-being is comfort.
If a brooder lamp is necessary for warmth it shouldn’t be a blast of blinding light. You may want to make the switch from heat lamps altogether and switch to radiant heat from a radiant heat plate. This will solve your fluctuating temperature problem, and providing you have a good number of chicks, it will be sufficient in keeping them warm.
Note: If it’s brutal cold… you can supplement with a low-wattage red heat lamp. Low-wattage heat bulbs are sold for reptiles, I usually use a 50 or 100-watt, depending on how cold it is.
I’m convinced that happy and content chickens start in the brooder. It’s easy to tell if the brooder has comfort zones. You should see some birds huddled together under the heat source, some resting alone, some scratching in the litter, and some eating. Watch your chicks, their behavior says it all!

A Brinsea Radiant Heat Plate
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