Crazy chick momma, questions about moving my babies

Hi all! I'm new here but have been reading some older posts every day for weeks now. I am a 4H leader and we hatched chicks 3 weeks ago today. They are Cornish Xs and while I know they are meat chickens, I've done an excellent job making sure they get plenty of exercise and don't eat to excess and also get lots of fruits and veggies. I've been told by several other chicken families that they are looking fantastic and better than most Cornish Xs at this age. (Yay!! I am totally in love with these sweet babies).

My husband and I transformed an outdoor dog pen into a chicken coop. It has a concrete floor that was already in when we moved into our house, but we have lined it with soil and there are logs in there that our chicks just love climbing on.

We have only been leaving them outside during the day for the last 3 days because they are big and going crazy inside their brooder box during the day. They have been fine at night in their box and seem to know that it's bedtime. Except last night. I heard one chick going crazy. Went to check on them at 5 am when I woke up and found one chick flew out during the night and was all alone. Lol.

So now I'm brainstorming but don't want to think I'm crazy for the idea I have. So I have one of the plastic pet taxis, the XL Great Dane size. Could I pack it with straw and keep it in their outdoor coop and lock the chicks inside it during the night? And put an actual lock on it so raccoons couldn't get in no matter what? That way they can be outside all day, and just sleep in the box at night. I'm just worried they are too big for the brooder box and will start hurting one another at night in it or end up getting into something they shouldn't in our guest bedroom

Probably depends on how warm it is where you are and how well feathered out the chicks are. I kick my chicks out at about 3 weeks old once they have their feather "jackets" into a 10x10' dog kennel, but I have a lectro-heating pad cave I made for them to duck into if they get cold. The kennel is fortified against predators itself (bottom 3' wrapped in fencing, tarp for wind block, roof). I have huddle boxes made from various things (half a dog house, covered litter box, cardboard box) that are stuffed with straw to sleep in if they don't want the extra warmth of the heated cave.

I agree it depends on your temps at night. I put my small batch of CX out around that time, with a heat lamp at night. They used that for about a week, then I moved them to the bigger grow-out pen with no heat. In both pens they were with layer chicks of various ages and did just fine. In fact, the CX seem to generate a ton of body heat, the layer chicks compete as to who gets to snuggle down with the CX . I'd say just check on them a few hours after they bed down. If you stick your hand into the middle of the huddle, you'll probably be surprised at how warm it is between the birds.

It's staying around 50° at night, and yes, they've been staying very toasty. I haven't used their heat lamp in a few days because every time I leave it on, even when it's pretty far away, they all spread out away from it. I'm thinking they would be fine in the pet taxi, inside the 12x6 kennel we transformed into a coop/run. Plus straw provides some insulation which would help keep them toasty. I'm going to try it tonight. Hubby leaves for work at 10 pm and he will check on them before he leaves and I'm up feeding the horses between 4:30 and 5 anyway. Thanks for not thinking I'm completely insane lol

gatewaytrails said:

It's staying around 50° at night, and yes, they've been staying very toasty. I haven't used their heat lamp in a few days because every time I leave it on, even when it's pretty far away, they all spread out away from it. I'm thinking they would be fine in the pet taxi, inside the 12x6 kennel we transformed into a coop/run. Plus straw provides some insulation which would help keep them toasty. I'm going to try it tonight. Hubby leaves for work at 10 pm and he will check on them before he leaves and I'm up feeding the horses between 4:30 and 5 anyway. Thanks for not thinking I'm completely insane lol

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Oh well, I didn't say that .

You're just my kind of crazy, that's all

Lol good!!