Growing out Chicks

[BerrytangleFarm]

I posted this in the chicks forum, but maybe this is a better place for it.


We're starting a new flock of 100% English Orpingtons -- chocolate and blue/black/splash. We'll have chicks and hatching eggs, so there will be about a month or two differences in ages.

I have two enclosed coops with attached runs and an outdoor 4x8 brooder with a divider to make 2 4x4 compartments. For new hatchlings, I can use a plastic rubbermaid with lights in the garage. Free ranging isn't an option in our area with predators about. Obviously with this being a more expensive endeavor, we'll be selective about what roos we keep, so we'll need to keep the roos long enough to determine which we'd like to breed with.

What is the ideal way to do this?

How soon can I keep the babies in the brooder outside with a light (60/70's during the day and 45-55 at night)?

 

[Den in Penn]

If you can maintain an area of the right temperature, right from the start. Chicks don't stay under mom 24/7, they move about, eating, drinking, playing, then they get cold then they go back to the heat to warm up. So larger part of the brooder can be colder than mom, as long as they have that area to warm up and sleep in.
Can't help you with the ideal way to select the rooster.

 

[donrae]

I've always brooded my chicks outside. Well, I guess in a draft free barn, so protected but unheated except for the heat lamp. They do fine, I'd start them out there now. As stated, hen raised chicks are doing great this time of year, I'm suprised how little time they spend under momma during the day.