Fall integration

[GemW]

I guess I misunderstood but I thought you said it was cold? Or is it that it's going to get cold soon?

With your current temps I'd start the integration process immediately, and take advantage of the warm temperatures to get them integrated ASAP. They do not need much feathering to be outside in warmer temperatures (really they won't need heat during the day at all, at 2 weeks), they just need dry, draft free shelter and the option of heat.

I believe in early integration (my goal is integrated by 4 weeks old) but you do need to set up for it. My article on early integration (skip past the first half which is brooder set up): https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/short-on-time-recycle-a-prefab-brooder.73985/


It depends on the flock and set up and the integration approach, but my 2 week olds have open access to the entire coop and run with the adults. They are brooded outdoors from the start however, so the first 2 weeks also serve as the see but no touch period.

If using a dog crate as the see but no touch area, then bird netting stretched taut and secured well, or hardware cloth, again well secured, around the sides, should be enough to keep chicks in, but protected from adults reaching in.

I misunderstood your question! Those are my brooder temps. We're currently 70s-80s during the day and 50-60 at night. But I will check out the article and I think early integration is the goal here!

 

[Auntiejessi3]

I misunderstood your question! Those are my brooder temps. We're currently 70s-80s during the day and 50-60 at night. But I will check out the article and I think early integration is the goal here!

I have 2 week old chicks outside right now, they've been out in the grow out coop for a week and they're just fine, temps here are high 80's low 90's, but 50's and 60's at night. I agree with @rosemarythyme early integration is the key! I have 2 sets of hidey holes in my grow out pen and have had over 42 chicks this year, all of which are running wild with the bigs by 4 weeks old, and the ones that I've kept are on the juvenile roost in the coop by 6 weeks old.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I misunderstood your question! Those are my brooder temps. We're currently 70s-80s during the day and 50-60 at night. But I will check out the article and I think early integration is the goal here!

Those are very doable temperatures to brood outdoors with a heat source and a dry, draft free area for the chicks. I do my brooding and integration with temps around mid 40s-mid 60s. Let me know if you have further questions after reading the article!

 

[Rogue47]

I'm new at chickens, and improvising as I go along, but I started four chicks in June and a separate group of six more in August (all purchased live, not incubated here). I didn't have a brooder and don't have tons of money, so I bought a folding playpen at the thrift store for about $12 and put in pine shavings and a small feeder and waterer. I kept this arrangement in my laundry room with a lamp for extra heat, which they probably didn't really need.

When the first four were two or three weeks old I had to put a lid on the playpen; I used an old baby gate which was awkward for me but it was a perfect fit. When I got the newest six girls in August, I moved the older four outdoors in a large wire dog crate (borrowed from my kids), gave the playpen a good cleaning, and made a new home for the little ones.

Now the "tweens" are four months old and free ranging in my fenced yard with my one laying hen and my rooster. The two "adults" perch inside the coop (which began life as a 10X12 metal shed) on a modified bunkbed ladder, and the tweens perch on a tall roost in the open run, which now has top and three sides sheltered with tarps. The weather is changing now (October in Oklahoma) and in about two weeks I plan to introduce the six little ones to the others - maybe keeping the rooster isolated from them at first - he's pretty docile but can be a little bit grumpy sometimes.

If winter gets here too fast, and if I can't safely integrate the "babies" I can move the dog crate inside the coop. I'm trusting that the tweens are smart enough to go inside the coop when it gets too cold out... they have free access now.

Sorry if that's way more than you wanted to know... I can get carried away!