Can you raise baby chicks in the coop?

[Ebony Rose]

Preface: I live in the tropics, warm weather, year round.
I brood my newborn chicks for three days inside with a heat plate and then transfer them and the heat plate to a bottomless cage on the floor of the coop (not under the roosts so that they don't get soiled as the adult birds sleep). Once the chicks are about two or three weeks old, moving about with agility, I raise the cage by inserting blocks under the corners so that the chicks can come and go freely, but the big birds cannot get into it. After another week or two they're usually well integrated with the flock.

 

[PippinTheChicken]

Here's the thread with my coop plans: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/pallet-coop-tips-and-ideas-needed.1494253/
Where do you think would be the best place?

 

[rosemarythyme]

Ok so I'm thinking...

1. In the house for week 1
2. In the coop all all day until week 4
3. Let them in the run week 4 onwards
4. Integrate them week 7-9

Depending on temperatures and how the chicks are doing healthwise and how the adults react to them you can probably anticipate moving that time line up a bit. By about 10-14 days my chicks are bouncing off the walls of the brooder, even with 2 sq ft per bird.

If adults are no longer showing much interest in chicks you can look to start letting them make contact with one another, but each flock will differ in how long that might take, so play it by ear.

With early integration, in a perfect world, you'd want to have them integrated by around 8 weeks or so, as many of us use "panic openings" that are chick sized and chicks simply outgrow them by around that age.

 

[NatJ]

Sometimes is goes down to 10°C here but I'm hatching next spring so it could go up to 20°C

With those temperatures, I would expect brooding chicks in the coop to be fine (with a heat source, of course.)

Because I'm used to thinking in Fahrenheit, I used google to convert, and that is 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit. I think that is just about the perfect temperature for chickens, including chicks with a heat source, and it's also my favorite temperature range for working outdoors

 

[PippinTheChicken]

Thanks for all your help! I want to hatch and raise my own chicks (because they're friendlier), but my dad didn't want all the smell and dust in the house- thought I was doomed! But gladly we're making a new coop big enough!!!

 

[rosemarythyme]

my dad didn't want all the smell and dust in the house- thought I was doomed! But gladly we're making a new coop big enough!!!

I have to agree with your dad, and it'll make for more well adjusted chicks as well.

 

[PippinTheChicken]

I have to agree with your dad, and it'll make for more well adjusted chicks as well.

I still have the dog fences I used for my mega brooder. They're tall so the hens can't reach.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I still have the dog fences I used for my mega brooder. They're tall so the hens can't reach.

What kind of fencing? And how tall?

 

[abpatchy]

A few questions...

1. The UK is quite cold, will they be ok just with a MHP? Should I use a heat lamp as well for the 1st week?
2. Do they stay inside the coop until a certain age? Or should they be outside everyday?
3. How do you brood them? What kind of brooder do you use

I live in Germany, so our climate is similar. I move my chicks in the coop when they are about 8-9 days old. That's when they get their coccidia immunization. And as they are supposed to live on the same bedding afterwards, that's when they get moved. I hatch starting in late March until early May. They have a heating plate. If it is very cold I place the heating plate inside a cardboard box that is laying on it's side.to help keep the warmth. That way they can run around, eat, drink and have fun. When they get cold they can go under the plate again. They have had no issues so far. I have had them in the coop with minus celsius tempertatures.
I do keep them inside until they are about 4-5 weeks old. All depending on the weather. Mainly because of the coccidia immunization. Cold and rainy ... they stay inside. If spring has some warm temps and sunshine I allow them outside in a limited space.
After they hatch I keep them in a puppy playpen with bedding. After that just the coop with bedding.

 

[PippinTheChicken]

What kind of fencing? And how tall?

It's metal and looks like a cage (but they're fences you can move around. I put cardboard on the bottom so no one squeezes out