Confining to the coop...

[Agilityscots]

Not sure where else this could go, so I'm trying here.

My girls will be 6 weeks old on Monday. Our coop is nearly finished, except for a few minor details like one more coat of paint and adding an extra sheet of hardware cloth on each window, which we plan to finish in the next day or two.

How long should the girls be confined to their coop before they're allowed out into a run? I've heard some people say a couple days, but that doesn't sound like very long to teach them where "home" is.

Amy

 

[Poison Ivy]

I locked mine in for 4/5 days the first time.That first day out in the run I had to put them back in the coop. I locked them up for a couple more days and they all went in on their own after that. So a week might be fine some might take longer to get it then others.

 

[Agilityscots]

Great, thanks Poison Ivy. This will actually buy us some time to put their run together.

Amy

 

[CoyoteMagic]

Not sure really. Mine went out into the run/coop when they were 4 weeks old. I didn't start letting them free range until they were about 9 weeks old. Now they come and go all day long

 

[Country Gal]

I was in the same situation... needed to get the chicks into the coop, but wasn't "quite" done yet. I kept mine locked in the coop for 3 or 4 days before allowing them out into the run (which gave me time to finish painting and BUILD the run!). I then waited about a month before allowing them to free range.