People! I amazes me that people keep their chicks and chickens IN THE HOUSE for weeks and weeks. They need to be outside. They are livestock. Not only that, but it is smelly and dusty in the house. Release your chickens from the rubbermaid prison and let them enjoy the outdoors!
Heehee - see it is the different perception sometimes... I keep and breed cockatiels and let me tell you - those can be messier and smellier( especially in breeding season) than my 4 week old chicks. When people keep pet chickens they bond to them just as you would with a dog and a cat and understandably they want to pamper them by keeping them indoors and out of the elements. I have to agree that chickens are happiest outdoors but I don't think that chicks ( let's say under 4 weeks or so) mind to live indoors if they have enough room to move around... I am one of those "indoor chicken keeper" and had my 7 chicks in my livingroom in a 4x2 run until yesterday when they moved into their coop. We enjoyed having them - the kids loved feeding them and the chicks didn't seem to mind the indoors. Now they are outside in their coop and will be released into their run in 1-2 days - I have to say that I don't feel sorry for them - they are going to spend the rest of their lives in our yard picking and enjoying the sun, getting scaps and - well - be a chicken ...
I hear ya! I had 3 chicks in my bathroom for a few days and they are the MESSIEST things. I Finally put them in the garage till they are old enough to go outside.
I have 10 chicks on my sunporch, living in a dog crate. Friday, when my final exams are over and their tractor/proto-coop is finished, they move outside. I can't wait! It's only been three weeks for me and that's plenty!
I don't think my chicks would have enjoyed being out in the rain for the past seven days I think they're pretty happy in my laundry room getting tons of attention and treats. They'll go out soon enough.
My Dark Cornish would prefer to live inside than out! She would much rather be inside and go out occasionally like a dog. Some days I have to fight with her to keep her outside. I let her in occasionally and let her nap on the couch, or follow me around. She has, every once in a while, convinced another chicken to come inside with her, but they just peek in and go back out in the yard. It really shouldn't upset you so much that people let their chickens in the house. It's a personal decision. Shelly
Mine are always hatched indoors, thus, started indoors. They do not completely feather out until 8 weeks, so it's a might too cold out in Michigan for them to be out 24/7 now. With spring hatchlings, I do put them out in a safe and warm (with heat lamps) horse stall, but I would not do so until at least 4 weeks. They don't mind being indoors a bit!
Having had numerous goats in the house and a orphan foal in the basement then in the garage I see nothing wrong with chicks inside to start with....... I would be very happy with an outside brooder. Too bad I have a fixed income and manage to live with my daughter under the poverty level. We still seem happy and so do our animals!
If I hatch it, I'm momma, I happen to live indoors and go out frequently. It's been pouring rain and we had the coldest winter in years. I'm not putting unfeathered chicks out when it's not suitable. Then the mother hen's don't take the chicks out when it's not safe and if they do, they do lose some. I'm brighter than poultry and I'd like to keep the chicks I've invested time and money in. I keep a close eye on poults the first two weeks, so yes they're in the home or in the patio brooder. Outdoors as livestock equals a certain amount of stock loss, if they're not fully feathered and even once they are. I lost a free range turkey yesterday to stray dogs. She had a choice, she knew the property and the safe zones, she made a choice to go out alone and died. When I'm trying to rear new and replacement stock I'm unwilling to leave them unmonitored. They go out pretty much like my hen raised stock, when it's safe, when it's warm enough for awhile. Then back in where it's safe, warm and dry and where I am. Unlike my hens I don't want to spend all day out there, and I don't want to spend half the day sheltering the little suckers with my body aka in my shirt. They'll go to the midway brooder at four weeks. And from then on be free range like everything else. While you are welcome to your opinion and you are in a large group. We have our way of doing things, it suits us and we weren't judging you for the way you do things. I will however judge you for dictating to others, for presuming other's situations, for intolerance. Not nice.
