Brooder question

[22ChickenNuggets]

Good luck with it all. Hopefully your coop gets built ASAP for you! It looks great BTW!

I have a feeling I will be in your situation. We aren't getting our chicks for 9 days but the coop isn't built. the spot for it to go is cleared out mostly and hopefully this weekend will be cleared out fully. But wood for the coop and run is being delivered the day after the chicks get here so hopefully my husband can start building it that weekend. He has a friend that raises chickens that told him last week that he was going to HATE having the chicks in the house for the whole time. My answer was: "well as long as the coop is done and we have electric out there or can get electric out there then I plan to move them out around 4-5 weeks old with heat so it won't be horrible having them in the house since they won't be in for the 6-8 weeks so hopefully the coop is done by then" figure that would motivate him.

They are ok when they are 3 days - 2 weeks inside, but after that they are messy, the dust is horrible. The coop will be done probably next week. But we are still battling temps that I don’t care for. I’m a new chicken owner, and I’m probably babying them because of my own faults lol I just have to bite the bullet, they are 6 weeks old now, they have feathers. They are not babies anymore. Good luck with your coop! It’s a lot of fun watching it become a coop from just a pile of wood!

 

[junior67]

They are ok when they are 3 days - 2 weeks inside, but after that they are messy, the dust is horrible. The coop will be done probably next week. But we are still battling temps that I don’t care for. I’m a new chicken owner, and I’m probably babying them because of my own faults lol I just have to bite the bullet, they are 6 weeks old now, they have feathers. They are not babies anymore. Good luck with your coop! It’s a lot of fun watching it become a coop from just a pile of wood!

I am sure I am going to baby mine too. I haven't had chickens since I was a child so basically a new chicken owner. I am so excited. My daughter said they could stay in her room so I told her that we would do it the first 2 weeks but then probably move them to the basement after that since I heard that is when they get really messy. our basement isn't really finished but it is furnished and kind of my husbands "man cave" so sure with them there for 2 weeks he will be ready to have them out. I did see a tip of hanging up plastic shower curtains around the brooder to help contain the dust some so that is what I am planning on doing when they move down to the basement. Debating on moving them to the living room and just doing the curtains there too. Still unsure where they will go at 2 weeks old. We don't have a garage, or porch or anything like that.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I was going to ask maybe if I could turn the lamp off during the day and back on at night. Weather is starting to get a bit better during the day, so on those days I think I’m going to open the door. And the the air in. Thank you so much for being so helpful. View attachment 2591513

Heat lamp just at night should work to start acclimating them to cooler temps.

Wow your temperatures really are up and down aren't they? Looks nice towards the weekend but I can see why looking at Wed and Thurs might be a little nervewracking as far as trying to plan how you're going to put them out.