Inside Coop for not so Winter Hardy chicks*Updated*with Pics*

[Kat's Silly Chickens]

Well, I finally got our inside cage/coop complete enough for our not so winter hardy chicks to live comfortably for the winter

. It's a 7'L X 3'W X 3'-4'H design I created myself and built 90% of it alone. Had a little help from my dad, that's why it took so long to complete

. Our 2 Sultans, 2 Silkies, and Blacktail Buff Japanese Bantam

love it. They bounce around on the wire mesh floor while playing

chase the feather. I still need to come up with a nestbox and better roost, and the staining won't happen til spring/summer.

But it's a workable project

.

 

[Olive Hill]

Inside as in inside the house?

How cold does it get in Central Texas?

 

[Kat's Silly Chickens]

Inside as in the sunroom, and it dropped to 32 last night and same for tonight

 

[Kat's Silly Chickens]

And the Sultans and Blue silkie are my 69 y/o moms and she's a worry wort about her pets

 

[elmo]

I'm in the DFW area, and I also have tiny bantams: part Seramas. Some of them weigh only around a pound, and the largest one is less than two pounds. They're our pets, too. On freezing or near freezing nights, I do turn on a small, oil filled radiator in the coop for them. They seem to handle the cold during the days beautifully...but of course I didn't acclimate them to indoors.

 

[Kat's Silly Chickens]

I could understand the Japanese Bantam going outside on a permanent basis in the spring, the reason these 5 are in the sunroom is 4 of the 5 are only 8 weeks old.
The Sultans and Silkies will be going out during the day time, when it warms up more. We will have a run for them built to keep them safe from flying predators.
I read up on the type of chickens my disabled-mom wanted and told her they are not a cold weather bird. But as 3 of them are her birds, I'm not going to be the 1 to tell her they might all be ok outside in the coop
(which has no electricity to even use elmo's idea of an oil-filled radiator heater).
We live in the country where the wind just blows right thru our acre property, and with the winter temps doing these indecisive flip-flops recently she doesn't want them becoming chick-sicles.
And with our not-rooster-friendly neighbor, if any of the Sultans or Silkies are roosters, they can't be outside in the early morning crowing or that neighbor will cause problems and we'll have to get rid of any roos.
The 5 that I built the sunroom cage (with removable poop drawer) for are special pets, gotten just for that purpose. The 4 in the coop are our egg laying pets, that are more cold weather hardy.

So Olive Hill (not to sound mean on my part) it's not as nutts as you think,

 

[secuono]

Silkies and Japs being too cold in Texas?
Weird, mine are all out in the barn in Virginia and their water would freeze if the heat lamp was not on it. They don't seem too cold..

 

[Kat's Silly Chickens]

Quote:
It's not me that's so worried that the Silkies and BT Buff Japanese Bantam would get cold, it's Mom.
My biggest concern is they were raised from 1 day old (hatched 10/13) in the sunroom and their age at this point (8 wks), the Jap isn't grown enough to be integrated out there yet.
The BR's and Cochins are 13 w/o and at least 5 times larger than it (and their coop has no electricity to even put a water warmer).
As soon as it warms up a bit the Jap will be integrated (in the large wire pet kennel) to the coop with the BR's and Cochins.
The Sultans, and Blue Silkie is mom's and her pets (with her disability she can't get out to the coop to be with the chickens, hence the sunroom cage). My only 8 w/o chick that's in the sunroom is the Buff/Red Silkie.
We open 2 of the windows on warm days to allow them to get use to the outdoor idea.
And as I said they will have a run to be in as soon as it warms up a bit.

 

[secuono]

My chicks from 4-9 weeks are out with the adult Japs and the one adult Silkie. Though, they do have a heat lamp, mostly for the water not to freeze over. Silkies, Welsummer, Cochin, mutts, all out in the barn. I have 2-3 week old Jap chicks in the house that I hatched, won't be taking those out until they are at least 6weeks. But with the eggs that should hatch soon, I might wait until the new ones are 6weeks and move all of them as a group, 6 and 8week olds to the barn. But that's mainly so they have friends to explore and sleep with. My adult Japs are very tolerant, only 3 or 4 other chicks that are now 9weeks, might pick on them, but they will have their friends and plenty of space.

Well, if mom wants them smelling up the house, why not! lol.
Hopefully by spring, they won't be too spoiled and demand to stay in the house.

 

[Kat's Silly Chickens]

Surprisingly the poop drawer keeps any smell to a very minimum, it's filled half full with pine chips and gets emptied once a week. If I notice any odor

before the end of the week I'll empty and fresh pine will be put in.
The only friends the Jap has are the chicks she was raised with, and the 13 w/o Sultan

. The younger chicks have never been in with the BR and Cochins, even before they were taken out to the coop. The older Sultan has become their momma

and when mom takes her out to hold, the younger 1's cry until the Sultan is put back in with them.
Yes they are spoiled chicks. Our fault and may be fall-back,

.
But we got these younger chicks to have as pets and they are crazy creatures, it's

watching them play 'chase the feather'

.