First night

[Mishyk]

Leaving chicks in coop tonight. They are 6 weeks and fully feathered with just two or three wispy baby feathers left. I am absolutely petrified. They have outgrown their brooder and this move is necessary but I am so worried. They are in their coop. Enclosed in hardware cloth. Secure latches. I just see fault after fault and I am so nervous a predator will come after them.

 

[azygous]

Does the coop have any solid walls at all? Chickens would prefer to sleep where they know something isn't going to sneak up on them and eat them in their sleep.

It would depend on what sort of predators you have. About the only predators I can think of that could tear their way through hardware cloth is a bear or mountain lion and possibly a big dog. Maybe raccoons.

Why don't you post a photo of your coop and we will either help you ease your mind over its safety or we might come up with ideas to improve its security.

 

[Mishyk]

The coop is this one... I am so worried about predators I added locking carabiners to every opening. In addition I reinforced the walls with a 2nd layer of hardware cloth... this one with 1/4 inch gaps. I mounted the coop on concrete blocks with an overlay of hardware cloth. I removed food from the coop and run for the night as not to attract predators.

I couldn't do it. I brought them in. Maybe they are ready...but I'm not.

 

[junior67]

Leaving chicks in coop tonight. They are 6 weeks and fully feathered with just two or three wispy baby feathers left. I am absolutely petrified. They have outgrown their brooder and this move is necessary but I am so worried. They are in their coop. Enclosed in hardware cloth. Secure latches. I just see fault after fault and I am so nervous a predator will come after them.

My babies are a bit under 3 weeks old and the thought of putting them in the big coop in a few more weeks gives me anxiety!!!!! HAAHAA. before I got them I was like "oh no big deal" then after a few days of having them it freaks me out thinking about them outside all alone (there are 10 of them so they are far from alone) and not being in the house where I know they are safe. So I completely understand where you are coming from and I am not even at that point yet! We are still in the process of building the coop and there is absolutely nothing that will be able to get into mine. I think I am going to get a camera so I can watch them all night long when I put them out!

 

[azygous]

I think your coop will be secure. Except if you have bears. Do you have bears? I have bears. They've been my worst predator over the years, and there have been several extremely close calls. Well, maybe bobcats are worse, but bobcats are sneaky and tricky rather than destructive. I've lost two hens to bobcats but none to bears, in spite of them coming around and drooling over my chickens in the run.

But it hasn't stopped me from brooding baby chicks in my secure covered run. My current chicks are not quite four weeks old and they've been outside in the run ever since the second day after I brought them home.

They've survived and thrived in spite of it being fiercely cold, ten degrees one night, and 30s during the day. My run and coops are pictured on my avatar beside this post. I've never had any animal breach my run, and only minor damage to the coops over the years by bears trying to get into them.

Like I said, if you don't have bears, you probably won't have an animal breach your coop.

 

[Kriscam]

I have that same anxiety! My four girls are 6 and 7 weeks old and more than ready to move outside. Their coop and run will be ready in a couple of days and I worry they will be stressed for a while in their new home. As you said, they are ready, but I will miss being able to be so close to them in their brooder.