I am not the biggest fan of brooding chickens in the house.

The chickens that we brooded in our media room at the old house were, for sure, some of the friendliest chickens that I’ve ever had, mostly due to the fact that they saw us for hours a day, every single day. We had older cats back then and I only had 8 chicks so it was super easy to just pop them in the bottom part of a dog kennel with a heat lamp and let them do their thing.

Of course, that leads to other issues when they get bigger and you give them a bigger area and don’t realize how high they can jump!

Ahhh, how awesome is that first time chicken brooder’s learning curve, am I right?

The amount of dust they kicked up in and around the room they were in was just awesomely epic. I think the combination of the feather dust, the bedding dust, and the food dust was just an unholy trinity that left a layer of yuck on everything like a quarter inch thick and I just can’t even with that.

Of course, this is my absolute favorite way to brood chickens:

They ended up being fairly spooky though, which I didn’t care for. I got some adult chickens last year from my neighbor and they were pretty spooky anyway so I guess I’m not surprised they raised spooky babies. I was hoping them being a bit “closer to nature” aka wild as hell would give them an edge against the wildlife out there, and I think it worked for awhile, but sadly when I wasn’t able to micro-manage it for a couple weeks they succumbed to predators. I don’t even know what got them!

We are planning on putting a camera out in the barn this spring so I can keep a bit of a better eye on them, and I’m also planning on making them a bit of a yard area that is fenced in off of the coop in the barn. I’m hoping that will keep them safer in the morning and evening times, and I can let them out during the day for them to free range.

So much to do, so little warmth outside to do it in.

-Fin