A QUICK AND SIMPLE OUTDOOR BROODER

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If you do install a light socket, be sure to place it high enough so that the baby chickens can't (until they've outgrown the brooder) touch its bulb. (Of course, as soon as the little cheepers are well feathered out they won't need the heat anymore and you can disconnect the light fixture entirely.) Make certain also that you use an outdoor-type extension cord and wrap all plugs with electrical tape to minimize the danger of shocks?to you or your birds?in wet weather.

Speaking of soggy weather, these outdoor brooders are?as you might expect?especially vulnerable to sudden downpours . . . which means you'll want to ensure good drainage by I [1] putting the boxes on a slight slope and [2] drilling a few 1/4" holes in the heated compartment's floor. During periods of continuous wet conditions, we further recommend that you set a glass window—instead of the screen or grating?over the open portion of the frame.

When you first put your one- or two-day-old peepers in their new home, place their food and water in the heated area . . . then, as soon as they learn to venture out into the run, move the rations outside to minimize dampness in the brooding section. And don't worry: Despite their tiny brains, even small chicks know enough to go inside and dry off if the grass is too wet and when it rains.

Once the birds are big enough to fly—when they're about four weeks old?we open the hinged grate and let the peepers out into our fenced?off garden, where they seek out and eat the bugs that'd otherwise seek out and eat our plants. Naturally, we have to make sure the cats are in the house when we do this, and we do see that the chicks go back into their coop every night. (The birds are usually very cooperative.)

One of the chief advantages of our outdoor brooders is that they allow chicks to begin to forage from the first day they're in their new home. This not only prevents cannibalism, but makes the little cheepers grow up bold and healthy. (Chicks raised this way will venture out in the coldest weather to peck at the grass . . . and since the brooder can be moved to a fresh, clean piece of ground every day or two and kept separate from the main flock of grown-ups?the tiny birds rarely become ill.) We've noticed, too, that our young chickens seldom develop harmful "pecking orders".

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