Tips to keep your baby chicks warm if your electricity goes out, if you are living off grid, if your solar panels won't pull a heat lamp or brooder pad, or if your baby chicks do not have a mother hen you will need to provide sufficient heat for them or they will not survive. The following tips will help to keep your baby chicks warm without electricity.

If you live off grid raising baby chicks without a mother hen to keep them warm can be done without electricity. The following are ways that people keep their baby chick brooders warm. Using a combination of these methods will make sure your chicks stay warm.
Wood stove-Build a brooder around a wood stove which will put off plenty of heat to keep your baby chicks warm enough even during the coldest winters as long as you keep putting wood in the stove. A large box wood stove can put off enough heat to keep your chicks warm most of the night and will usually only need to be reloaded once or twice through the night. The baby chicks will huddle under the stove when they get too cold as the coals inside the stove will keep the bottom warm. If your wood stove is too high up you may need to provide additional heat with hot water bottles.
Hot water bottles-Good old fashioned hot water bottles will stay warm all night. Put the hot water bottle in a cardboard box big enough that the baby chicks can get in it and huddle near the hot water bottle if they get cold.
Plastic containers, metal containers-Fill containers (old coffee cans, jars, etc) with boiling hot water and place inside a cardboard box with enough room that the baby chicks can huddle near them. See video and more below.
Wood stove-Build a brooder around a wood stove which will put off plenty of heat to keep your baby chicks warm enough even during the coldest winters as long as you keep putting wood in the stove. A large box wood stove can put off enough heat to keep your chicks warm most of the night and will usually only need to be reloaded once or twice through the night. The baby chicks will huddle under the stove when they get too cold as the coals inside the stove will keep the bottom warm. If your wood stove is too high up you may need to provide additional heat with hot water bottles.
Hot water bottles-Good old fashioned hot water bottles will stay warm all night. Put the hot water bottle in a cardboard box big enough that the baby chicks can get in it and huddle near the hot water bottle if they get cold.
Plastic containers, metal containers-Fill containers (old coffee cans, jars, etc) with boiling hot water and place inside a cardboard box with enough room that the baby chicks can huddle near them. See video and more below.
Featured Video: Off Grid Living: Creating A Electricity Free Chick Brooder

"How do you keep chicks alive with no electricity?? We cannot have a 250 watt heat lamp since it uses to much wattage. So what do you do? We created a brooder with radiant heat ! Using our free resource of wood...and water..we are doing it the old fashion way. Come join us to see our first 20 chicks in action and how to do this yourself" (Simply Starry Sustainable Living With God Published on Apr 18, 2015). See video below.
References:
- Off Grid Living: Creating A Electricity Free Chick Brooder. (April 18, 2015). YouTube. Retrieved 9 June 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCf7sVrOZRw