brooder roosts & grit

[critterwhisper]

Hi yall. I had a couple questions and wanted to know what you do. Brooder roosts, about what age should i put roosts in the brooder for my girls?they will be moved to the coop around 4-6 weeks of age.Is this a usual age to move them? It should be warm then in my area.
Grit,i keep getting conflicting advice on when to start this.some say start it in there feed the first thing,other views say wait till they are older.i know my papaw always had grit for his leghorns when i was a young kid.so when do you all start?Thank you

 

[AlienChick]

You really do not need any roosts in your brooder.
I have never had roosts in a brooder.
Some people put them in because they look more like a pet bird cage.
Once you put the birds out in the coop, they'll decided whether or not they want to roost up high.
If you have consistent warm weather where you are, you can move them out at 4-6 weeks.
The normal age is 6 weeks since that's when they are fully feathered.
Start feeding grit when they start eating anything other than chicken feed.
If they are allowed to eat outside on the ground, they will eat enough grit from the dirt.
You can still provide some additional free-choice grit in case your dirt is not gritty enough.
When they start laying eggs, provide some free-choice oyster shell.
Good luck!

 

[TheCrazyChick]

I put a roost in when they were about 2 weeks old. They immediately started using it. They are now 5 weeks old and many times 6 out of the 7 are all lined up in a row on it. Sometimes none at all, but not often.

 

[critterwhisper]

Thank you. I live in indiana,we got a lil dusting of snow today,and in the middle of winter,like the six weeks of age plan also.The girls would be turned out then in end/of march so it should be getting warm then.The girls will be semi free ranged,where they have acess to grass during the day,but will be fenced in due to us having coyotes,hawks,coons,foxes in our area.Thank you