Prepararing to free range

Hi Everyone,
My chicks are seven weeks old and i will be moving them into their new coop this weekend. At what age can they start to free range in the evenings? My other Question is when people talk about keeping them in the coop for a few days until they know that it is their home, are they talking about the enclosed partiom of the coop or can they be let out into the run? How should i introdukcje them to their new coop for that matter?
Thank you for your Help.
S

I am letting my babies out tomorrow. I kept my older hens I'm waaaaayyy too long . They absolutely love to be free. I plan to keep the older hens inside of their coop/run area and only let the little ones out. They have separate runs.

QHGirl said:

Hi Everyone,
My chicks are seven weeks old and i will be moving them into their new coop this weekend. At what age can they start to free range in the evenings? My other Question is when people talk about keeping them in the coop for a few days until they know that it is their home, are they talking about the enclosed partiom of the coop or can they be let out into the run? How should i introdukcje them to their new coop for that matter?
Thank you for your Help.
S

Click to expand...

We've always started letting ours out to free range at about 8 weeks, with lots of supervision until they get things figured out and integrate with the rest of the flock. Are you introducing them to the coop with older hens or will they be the first tenants? If alone, you should just be able to move them in. They might seem overwhelmed the first night or two but they're pretty smart and will figure it out. I think most people will keep them in for a week or better so they realize it's "home". With older birds already living there, we always use a big dog crate, move them in at night and when we let the bigger birds out in the morning, we let the babies out of the crate to have the run of the entire coop and run all day. When it's bedtime, we put the littles back in the crate for the night and let the big kids in. This works well for us and them. It gives them a chance to safely get to know each other a little bit and the littles come to understand that this is home. We'll do this for a week or two. Enclosed portion or entire thing is up to you really. Hope that helps! Good luck

Very little experience here, but I'll tell you what worked for us. I moved my chicks out to the coop at around 5 weeks old. The first day I let them in the run for a couple hours and then put them in the coop for 4 days. I let them out for an hour or two each afternoon. The tough thing was getting them back in. haha
After the fourth day I started letting them out in the am (around 6), and rounding them up in the evening (7:30 or 8). By the third day of that they realized they should go in, and now I just have to go in, sometimes encourage a straggler or two, and shut the door behind them. They figured it out a lot faster than I thought!
They have a nice sized run, and we live in town, so free ranging isn't really an option for us. Once they have settled down more (I figure another month) I will start trying to take them into the yard with me for a little while, and see how they do. The first couple weeks of them being out (at least for us), the girls have been crazy, very jumpy and skittish. I can hardly even get near them, where in the brooder at least a few of them loved being held. I equate it to an overstimulated toddler. Too much new stuff, trying to figure out all the new sights, sounds and flavors. I definitely wouldn't trust them to be out of the pen right now, they would be all over the neighborhood!

Welcome! All the above advise is very good. Move them into the coop first, until they are comfortable , maybe a couple of days. Then let them in the run and coop, again until they are fine exploring the area, and going into the coop at night on their own. Then, open the run door late in the day, while you are there to supervise, so they will tend to go to the coop soon, near dark. If they have had time to acclimate, and know to come for treats when you call, it should work out fine. Be prepared to encourage a straggler or two to head in those first few days out. Mary

Yep, I moved last years set from the brooder to the enclosed hen house (coop) no outside time for 3 days and 3 nights. Then on the 3rd day I physically picked them up and put them in the run and shut the coop door (chickens hate new things so just opening the door does not mean they will come out). Then I sat next to them and gave them treats to calm them down...keeping in mind mine had already had field trips outside with me frequently. That evening all 3 trooped off to bed like good chickens and that was that. Now this year, I did the same thing but since they had already got to be in the area thaat their temp run is outside of their partitioned off section of the coop I opened the door to see how they would be...out they came. I do have to shoo one (the brave independent Brahma female) in each night but she makes it easy enough.

Thank you for your response. This crew is my first! I moved them in this afternoon.

Thank you!
I think I will do something similar.

I use a 3 stage system and I start letting my birds have access to outside in as little as 2 weeks sometimes if the weather is warm enough. As late as 4 weeks if colder.
1st stage is the brooder coop. This sits close to the exit of the layers coop. It is, or was, once upon a time, an old automated aluminum can recycling machine. I believe they were called Golden Goats in some areas but basicly was a machine where you stuck in a can and it would spit out a few cents for the can. The mechanical bits have all been removed and it was made from double walled fiberglass with spray foam in between the walls so it really holds the heat well. When the weather starts getting above 70 in the daytime, I put up a small piece of fencing roughly 4 by 4 feet and the door open a bit so they can get back into the heat when they want to. This starts getting them used to larger birds as the hens walk right past them to get in and out of the laying coop.

2nd stage is what I call the rearing coops. Birds get moved from the brooder coop to these somewhere between 4 to 6 weeks old. These are quite simply pick-up truck toppers. For the meat birds, they now get moved to the area near the road so people can see them as they pass by and are kept there until ready to be sold.
For the layers, theirs is set up right next to the laying coop with an expandable range area within the larger range area of the layers. The young birds can run around their range or under the toppers for warmth if they need it and continue getting used to the full grown birds as they head in and out of the lay coop or mill about the range.

3rd stage is for layers only as the meat birds stay in their area until sold or butchered. At about 16 weeks age when the new layers can be switched from grow ration to layer ration and are also big enough to not be bullied by the older hens, the seperating fence is taken down. At first the younger birds return to their topper at night, but eventually start following the older birds into the layer coop at night on their own. After about a week only a few stragglers are left that need coaxing into the layer coop.

Holy cow! You do have a system down! That's amazing.
Thank you! How many birds do you have? I just posted a picture of my coop in the coop forum.
I made a promise to my husband that I would keep my flock somewhere between 6 and 8.