Can I put them in the coop at two weeks

[Stormy]

They are growing fast. I have 27 chicks. They will outgrow the brooder box in aprox. one week (when they will be two weeks old).

Plans are to put them in a very large plastic pool, and move the brooder light over a portion of that (to continue to maintain temp of 90 for that second week). The large plastic pool is too big to keep here in the kitchen, and I thought this morning, why not put the pool out in the coop? The coop is preditor-proof....It is within 50 feet of my back door.

If I did put them out there in a plastic pool inside the coop, I wouldn't need to put a lid over the pool-or even hardware cloth, as the coop is shut and preditor proof.

Am I missing something here, is there a reason I shouldn't do this?

 

[thechickenchick]

Yes you can do that! Thats what we did with our second batch! Hubby said no more chickens in the house. I kept the first ones in the house for 6 weeks!! The dust from their shavings fried our computer and printer. I was in a little trouble!! Anyway... That will work fine. Your main issues are temp, drafts and predators. It sounds like you have that handled. Good luck.

 

[chickiebaby]

not clear to me if you have other chooks in the coop?

 

[arlee453]

It would work fine AS LONG AS you don't have any grown/older chickens in there arlready.

If so, you'll need to put up a barrier between the babies and the older ones so they don't get attacked.

 

[pbjmaker]

We put ours out in the coop at 2 weeks with the older kids. The babies were in a rabbit cage so everyone could see everyone else but couldn't hurt each other. We just let them be together without the cage 2 nights ago and everyone is fine. (They are about 4 1/2 weeks old now) The 13 week old rooster will only peck one if it wanders off and starts peeping really loud. I feel he is telling it to "shut up"

 

[Stormy]

No, I have no other chickens in the coop.

 

[thechickenchick]

Then you should be fine! Let me know how they do. I didn't sleep the first 2 or 3 nights!