How much room will my chicks need at 4-6 weeks?

[lakeontariochicks]

Okay, so if I need 3 square inches per chick at 1 day old, how much am I going to need when they are 4-6 weeks?
If only our NY weather would stay like it is now.... normally in early May though, it can still be chilly. I am planning on putting the brooder with the light in the coop by that point, but am just wondering how soon they will out grow their brooder?
We are in the process of building it(brooder), but I wasn't going to make it that big, because we have a limited amount of room where they will be.
Thanks for any help!
Oh- there will be 25 chicks in it!

 

[noitulover]

for 25 chicks... at 4-6 weeks, i'm estimating like a minimum of 6' x 6'... i'm sure some will say smaller or bigger, but i think that's the absolute smallest you could go without a whole lot of feather picking and cannibalism and trampling...

a 6' x 6' coop, is the minimum for 9 adult chickens... so if at 6 weeks they are around half the size they will be as adults, then that is 18... which is still less than 25, but i'm assuming at 4 weeks they will be definitely less than half size...

just my thoughts, but i would go bigger than 6' x 6' to eliminate any problems maybe 6' x 8' or a bit larger... good luck!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Noitulover is exactly right. You will get different opinions on this. I'm not going to say that mine is any better anyone else's. I do believe that more room is better.

The one I am comfortable with is 1/2 square feet per chick for the first 4 weeks, then 1 square feet until they are able to go outside. The "go outside" can be different for us for different factors, such as weather and whether we have to integrate when they go outside.

For my first batch of chicks, I put the brooder in the coop from day one. There were no adults. At 4 weeks, I took the brooder out of the coop but restricted them to the coop. No heat was provided after 4 weeks. The coop was pretty draft-proof, especailly at the floor level. Of course, that was June down here, not May in Upstate New York. When they were 8 weeks old, I opened the pop door to the run. I then let them have access to the outside every day after that from when I open the pop door in the morning until I close it in the evening. I'm sure they could have handled the temperatures at 4 weeks, but they were small, my run was not fully closed in at the top, and I have hawks. I think they would have been a real tempting target for hawks at 4 weeks of age.

With this batch, I'll do much the same but keep the adults in a tractor from the time I let the chicks out of the brooder into the coop and run until they are big enough to integrate.

I don't know if you can get anything out of this that might help you in your situation or not. Hope so! Good luck!