How to move from brooder to coop

[BabasCoop]

Here's what I did. After weaning from all heat sources (they were in my basement), I started putting them in the temporary run attached to the new coop during afternoons when the weather was ok. They could go up/down the ramp into the coop at will. Then I would take them back into the basement at nighttime. This week when the overnight temps were a bit better (40's) I closed them in the coop overnight. They did cry a bit more initially but settled down and roosted overnight. Last night was only the second night. When I put them in around 8 PM and they cried a bit, I sat with them and actually held and petted them a bit, which settled them quickly and all was well.

Today they are "cooped up" due to the unrelenting rain. So I guess this will help them acclimate, but I think they were doing it well enough anyway.

I'm no expert - these are my first chicks, and I think I may be worrying more than I should. My "mama heart" wants to bring them back inside but I won't, of course. I'm the same way with my bunnies. If it gets too wet, too cold, too hot, etc. I put them in the basement in an extra pen I keep just for the two of them. And they like it.

Well our run is fully enclosed. So I’m thinking I’ll try what u have been doing.
Our chicks aren’t fully feathers completely yet (one or two more weeks should do it). And on the weekends we are spending our days in the run working on building the coop.

So Im thinking, this weekend, I will put them in a box, dive them over to the coop and they can hang out with us is the run while we work on the coop. That way I’m there to keep an eye on them and they can get get comfortable with being outside. Then take them back at night to the garage.
Then by the time the coop is complete, they should be ready.
Thanks for the information (these are my first chicks too!)

 

[rosemarythyme]

We have a covered area off the back of our shop that we are fully enclosing and turning into our coop/run. In total it will be approximately 12x40 (it will run the entire length of the back of our shop. The Coop will be about 8 ft long, 4 ft high and 3 ft deep.

Thanks for the additional info. You have enough space to safely lock them inside for a few days if you wish. Since they're still young that's how I'd do it, since the run is pretty big, I wouldn't want to have to chase them around the run to wrangle them for bed, if they don't want to coop themselves at night.