Grow out housing

[homeschoolmama]

I'm still waiting for chicks to arrive at my feed store -16 more days!!!! But I have been trying to decide what to use for grow out housing for them when they are ready to graduate from the brooder in the garage to the outside, but they are still not big enough to move in w/ the big girls. I have not broken the news to dh that we will need to deal w/ this-waiting till the chicks are here and there is no turning back before bringing up that subject! Right now I am thinking of an A-frame ark/tractor type thing. I've been pondering pallet construction as well and have been searching the forum (taking up way too much of my days-LOL) for ideas. I'll need something fairly inexpensive-and quick to build-building the big girl coop last year took a lot more time and $$ than I had thought and I'm sure dh doesn't want to be going through that again so soon. Plus we still have a ton of snow on the ground so building something in place won't be happening for ages (or so it seems)
Also, when intro-ing the big girls to the new girls-how close do the pens need to be for them to start getting used to each other-shared fencing or is being a few feet away OK?
Thanks!!

 

[homeschoolmama]

Bump-what do you do?

 

[catdaddy66]

I have several shipping crates that I am going to turn into small tractors for groups 4-5 birds. This will allow me to replace my older hens with new pullets and have separate housing/shelter. I am not too keen on mixing old and new birds together though a lot of people do just that.

 

[The Sheriff]

Mine graduate from the brooder in the house to a rabbit hutch inside the main coop. They can see and be seen but have a heat light and are safe from the older birds. From there they go outside into a breeder coop with a run. The run fence borders the area where the big chickens are so they have meet and greets until they are old enough to join the flock. I do that gradually by letting them out to free range with the others while I am outside. Then, I let them out during the day but return them to the breeder coop at night. Eventually I go down one night and find them already in with the big chickens up on a roost. They are on their own at that point!