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| Here they are inside the garage in the “brooder” made of baby gates and hay on the floor |
Because it’s November, and too cold for the chicks to stay outdoors unprotected, I tried a couple of methods of letting them have some time outdoors, but discovered that they could not stay outdoors long without heat, or else they required constant supervision to ensure their safety from hawks.
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| Outside in the hoop house where they belong |
My husband and I built these hoop houses, some from bent cattle panels, and some from PVC pipe, covered them with plastic, and now I have a solar-heated chicken brooder that protects them from hawks. This structure will not protect them from four-legged predators, and it won’t keep them warm at night. However, depending on the weather, I can take them outside when the sun strikes the structure in the morning, and I bring them back inside the garage in the late afternoon.
I am able to do this because I am at home during the day and I can monitor the temperature under the plastic. Usually, I start out the day with the plastic completely closed, then in an hour or two open the ends, and, depending on how hot the day becomes, pull aside some of the plastic on the roof. The first time I tried this, I went out to check on them an hour after I put them in, and they were panting from the heat. I opened the plastic, and they were fine. Another day, a strong wind blew aside the plastic and I had to catch some of the chicks. Now that I understand how it works, I leave them for a few hours, but please do not leave your chickens in this structure all day without checking on them.
Edited at 12:09 PM: I just got back inside from checking on them, and it’s quite warm here–75 degrees or so today. Even with some of the plastic pulled back, they were still panting, so I made some further modifications with some plastic chicken fencing to allow them more air, and laid some tin roofing along the sides for shade. My “normal chickens do fine in the heat of a South Carolina August day, but I was concerned that these might not be able to withstand even a little discomfort.
It’s also not at all secure against four-legged predators or safe to keep them in during the night. I have them inside a fenced garden, which is inside an electric fence, so they are safe (but I’ll never say they are completely safe) during the day. Mr. Raccoon could easily climb the fence and get them at night, though, but he’s not usually active during the day.
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| I take them back and forth into the garage in a plastic tote. They hate this. |
Catching them is becoming more and more difficult, and they dislike the experience, but I believe I make up for the 5-10 minutes of anxiety while I catch them by allowing them the fun and nutrition available in the hoop house. And, that’s a whole day that they are doing their business outside, where it belongs, and enriching my garden soil in the process. I have discovered that if I take the food away for a couple of hours before it’s time to catch them the little beggars are so ravenously hungry that they rush to the feeder and I can catch them without chasing them. These birds don’t eat with one eye watching for predators like my other chickens. I’ve never been able to sneak up on a “normal” chicken.
In the future, I’ll get these chicks in late August, perhaps, so they will have warm weather while they are babies and can mature in the cooler weather of October, when they have feathers for warmth, can stay outside all the time, and will be large enough to deter most hawk attacks.