Anyone thinking of buying chicks, LOOK AT THIS

[ragerkid2]

Build you coop before you get the chicks. Or you will be in my situation. Which is nine 10 week olds and eight 7 week olds living in a bunch of Rubbermaid containers in your garage. ALSO when they go out to free range during the day, getting them back in at night is one funny yet ridiculously hard thing to do. Just a word of advice from someone that learns the hard way = ]

 

[mszekely]

It must be quite a sight.

Mine are now in their coop with a yard. I want to go to bed before the chicks do!
We try something different each night to get them to go in; treats, feeding, clapping my hands, reving the 4-wheeler! Left on their own they want to go in to bed around 9:30. I like to go to bed around 9!

 

[SuperChiks]

In the same boat!

 

[NYRIR]

I have raised ALL my birds like this...I currently have 18 poults in my brooder inside the house...transport out for the day....transport In for the night

Think I would have learned by now??? NOPE. Still transporting 18 poults,3 goslings,4 chickens,and 6 ducklings in and out EVERY day!!Good thing I have kids

The ducks I have a pen for when they are big enough but the first ones I got,I didn't.The chickens have a place now as well when they are big enough but the first flock? NOPE. The Geese? still have to build something bigger to accommodate 3 more...(chicken math applies to all poultry IMO )
The turkeys? Still need to build a coop/run....so yeah, I'm laughing at ya!! I understand FULLY!
Guess impulse buying a purse is a bit different than us impulsive poultry purchasers!

 

[Nicole01]

Hubby didn't build the coop and run until the older 3 were a month old. It took a couple of weekends to finish the job. Then the older 3 got bigger, I went out and got a few more chicks! Now I'm in the middle of this integration nightmare.

 

[jenkassai]

I keep TELLING hubby that he needs to get started on the coop but he hasn't yet. My 7 chicks are only between 4 days and just over one week, living in a big brooder in our bedroom, but they are growing FAST!! I had no idea how fast these guys grow!!! The ones just over a week old already have feathers on their wings and like to try them out

Hope he gets started soon!!

 

[Tikkijane]

Quote:
Once the dust hits, he'll be building in a hurry, lol. And make *him* do the dusting.

 

[JusticeFamilyFarm]

Ha! I'm with ya! Well, I only have 2 4-week olds and the others vary from 1 to 2 weeks old. I got my day olds and told my husband we had plenty of time to build the coop... then I was at a feed store and saw some older chicks and I didn't have any barred rocks yet... so now we're in a little more of a hurry since the 4 week olds can for sure get out of the brooder. We've already gone from a shorter brooder to this one, and I don't think I'm finding a taller box to upsize again! Now my brother has offered to build the coop... hopefully he hurries!

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
LOL been through the Rubbermaid stage. Now I have a cage in the garage at my moms house with Eleven four week old Guinea Keets. I have thirty more coming in a couple of weeks. The coop spot is sixty miles out into the desert where my house is. Now I have a job interview right here. I cant let them loose to free range because they are REALLY good fliers. They are too noisy when startled to have them outside in a temporary coop. Soooo... I go up this weekend and start cobbling something together.... (not my first choice)

Chicken math is insideous....

Guinea math is frenetic....

 

[mommybilly3]

So agree...when my chicks were given as a joke..they were in a korean orange box..now they are in a small coop that is more like a rabbit hutch that my husband and 3 girls built as a suprise one weekend...they are already too big for it...I wish I knew the exact age...they are really ugly right now losing the baby fluff getting their big girl and boy feathers! I am guessing around 6-7 weeks old...wish I had a clue how all this works...I am loving all the info on here!