I would imagine 12 chicks would do better together than just 3 chick in a huddle.. sheesh I remember my dad buying 100 chicks at a time. he partitioned off part of our old disconnected garage with a long board.. newpaper down and sawdust over that. huddle lights and chick feed and water and you were good to go. of course I did go into a major fit when he killed the first ones for a barbque... the killing part never went over well with me.. not sure I could go with it today if I reproduced his method since I still have the old garage available..