The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: NewToThis on November 05, 2015, 08:38:47 am
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I have some 4 week old chicks who have been in a dog cage inside up until now with electric hen, but this is now starting to get a bit small and they are wanting more space to flap about...
My options are:
Chicken run
Greenhouse
Outbuilding
I have power to all the above so could make the electric hen available in any of them
I was hoping they would be fine during the day outside/in greenhouse/outbuilding and I could pop them back in the dog cage inside for the cold nights
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How warm and sheltered is the outbuilding? The greenhouse is likely to have very high humidity at this time of year.
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Make sure that any building you use I not accessible to rats... any time of day.
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Thanks both - I just checked and the humidity/temps are about the same for both, the greenhouse is more secure so I will probably go with that
Do you think they will be warm enough during the day assuming they have the electric hen available?
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Depends on the weather. It's 13 degrees here at the moment but it is November. I don't set hatching eggs after July so all my 2015 hatch is pretty well grown now.
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Although I dont have chicks this late in the year I do use the green house as a chicks play pen when they need to get out of the coop.
They should be fine if they have the electric hen in a box on its side with straw underneath. I used to use my electric hen the same way but I always put the babies back in the brooder overnight. Its wet and mild here at present so the greenhouse runs the risk of condensing at night and as there is also the risk of a sudden frost I would bring them indoors and put them out again each morning.