3.5 weeks old chicks

[juliawitt]

Currently it is around 90 degrees during the day and getting down to 70 at night. Occassionally 65 degrees. This batch of baby chicks are the most enegetic I have ever had. They are in a big plastic tube in my bathroom with a light (there is 12 of them). They have a perch, but keep jumping on top of there food and water. As the level of food and water go down, they are tumping them over!!! I have bigger feeders/waterers but don't want to put them in the brooder....they take up too much room. The chicks are 75% feathered. Heads and tummies are still downey. Can I go ahead and move them to the outside coop segregation area?? Can't put a heat lamp out there, it would make the coop too hot for my big girls. The coop stays around 80 degrees. I have a ventilation fan which makes a breeze. I really want to move them. I worry while I'm at work that they have tumped their food and water...Can I move them to the coop segregation area now or should I wait another week? Advice please.

 

[Judy]

I'd move them but figure out a way that they won't dump the food and water, especially the water. Are you saying you can solve that outdoors with larger containers? Hope so. I'd sure there isn't a whole lot of breeze on them, too, maybe just a barrier in one spot. Ideally they'd be able to move in and out of the breeze. i have a similar setup and have propped up a plywood scrap between them and the fan. They would run all over the pen but gather behind the plywood to sleep.

I raised chicks from day one in my pen with a setup like this. I did have a heat lamp and nights a little below 70, but by 3 weeks I'd turned the heat lamp off because they were sleeping as far away from it as they could get.

 

[turbodog]

where I am the temps are similar to yours. I moved my youngun's out to the coop last week @ four weeks of age then. Like yours, they were mostly feathered and I figured the nightime temps were not low enough to cause them any problems. They are thriving outside and love the extra room. I swear they are growing even faster now!

 

[juliawitt]

I am going to try to keep them in until Sunday. They are the orneriest bunch of peeps I've ever had!! For a brooder, I have a plastic tub that is the exact same size as my upstairs bathroom tub. (That should be alot of space for 12 peeps.) The plastic tube is about 10 inchec higher than my real tub. Last week, I had to make a wire cover over the top to keep them in.......flying EVERYwere!! When I lift the lid, I cannot tell you how fast they jump up onto the edge to perch, begging me to hold them. So my husband whittled them perches out of tree limbs....still not enough for these guys!! They run from one end to the other. They jump onto everything, hence the reason they knock over their food and water. I can be downstairs with the TV on and hear them peeping. Of course, if I hear them, I assume something is wrong. I run upstairs to see why they are so loud.....is there a problem, are they too hot, too cold. I get up there and all activity stops. They try to look innocent. They've been playing "bumper peep". Run and fly into each other. Out side, my segregation area is even bigger than my brooder. I can use my stainless steal feeders and waterers. These (I know) are too heavy for them to knock over. The segregation area is even taller so they can fly and jump all they want. They will be able to see the "big girls" who may be able to give them the stink eye and get them to "knock it off". I wish there were chicken baby toys.....

 

[CupOJoe42]

Chicken baby toys: check out bird toys, stuffed animals, feather dusters.