How soon can the babies fly out of the brooder?

djwest8635

In the Brooder
8 Years
Mar 31, 2011
10
1
22
Hi, we have just started with a new batch of chicks in a home-built brooder and it seems that the chicks are already trying to fly out every once in a while when I open the lid. These are only one week old and I was wondering if it is normal for them to be able to flutter up in the air that early. They are also already sitting up on sticks of firewood I put in there to sleep on. I guess they are just growing up way too fast!! Oh, btw, the walls of the brooder are 18" high.
 
My bantam chicks are coming up on 2.5 weeks old & are in a brooder with sides around 15" to 18" tall and I had one escape lastnight! So now we have it covered with the chicken wire
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Yep! Mine are about 10 days old and I had to put them in a deeper (and bigger) brooder today. The first was a bin about 12" deep, and a couple of the BR's could wing it up to the rim. The EE's and Polish don't seem as ready to rise, but they like their new little apple branch roost four inches off the ground...
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I had a BR that flew out of the brooder before she was a week old! And then she ran around the outside peeping like mad until I heard and put her back in. It had a lid but I guess she could fit through the wire. I moved them to a bigger brooder and both her and a BO jumped out of that shortly after. I forgot to put the lid on today and found a Belgian D'Uccle sitting on top of it earlier today (two weeks old now). They can jump/fly pretty high, pretty early.
 
Well I guess we have lots of early flyers. I first noticed the girls doing it when a moth got in the box around the light. I had never seen such crazy activity in my life. We keep a lid on the brooder so hopefully they won't escape while its opened.
 
I think it's more a question of how soon will they rather than how soon can they. I have a BCM cockerel in a 'brooder' (inside for now cause he has no buddies his age) who is about 12 weeks old or better. He has just recently started getting out of his box. Then I've got a serama cockerel about 6 weeks old that won't stay in it for nothing! As soon as they get their wing feathers they can fly some, but most don't unless they are bored, hungry, or overcrowded.
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Our 11 day old BO is flying up to the rim (18") every now and then. She is feathering in the fastest. I think it's more by accident, but we keep the brooder covered with hardware cloth at night when we can't be around to keep a watch.
 
It amazes me how fast they go from hatching out of an egg to flying up to the edge of their brooder! At ten days old we found one of our chicks on the top edge-no more leaving the lid open!
 

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