I do it a little differently than Aart but then my set-up is different than Aart's. I built this 3' x 6' brooder as a permanent part of the coop. The top is my droppings board for the main roosts. I elevated it and made the floor out of 1/2" hardwire cloth so poop drops into bins I got from
Walmart for easy clean-up and to keep the brooder very dry. The plastic is there to keep the hens from going underneath and as a wind barrier. I've put chicks in here straight from the incubator in January when the outside temperature was below freezing, I've put chicks in here in July when it was really hot out but in winter it's wrapped a lot better.
I'm not trying to tell you that you have to do anything like I do it, there are plenty of different ways to accomplish what you are trying to do. Brooding outside has one tremendous difference to brooding in a climate controlled place. The temperature swings create a real challenge. I've had overnight lows in the mid-teens Fahrenheit followed two days later by highs in the 70's.
Chicks can handle much colder temperatures than a lot of people give them credit for, but they do need a place to go to warm up. I use heat lamps to keep one end toasty no matter the weather but allow the other end to cool off. Some mornings in winter I've had ice in the far end but the heated area was toasty. In summer I raise the heat lamp and use a lower wattage bulb. One summer during a ridiculous for us heat wave I turned the daytime heat off at 2 days and the overnight heat off at 5 days. All this is a lot different than brooding in a steady temperature in the 70's.
I'm not pushing heat lamps. There are a lot of different ways to provide a warm spot but at the same time have another area cool enough. Heating pads, heating plates, emitters, hovers, and other things have their own advantages, disadvantages, and risks but if used correctly they all work.
I normally keep my chicks in here until they are 5 weeks old. In the middle of winter with temperatures below freezing I might keep them in a few days longer but I’ve had chicks raised this way go through nights in the mid 20’s F with no supplemental heat at age 5-1/2 weeks. To me that’s one advantage of raising them outside in a brooder large enough so the far end really cools off. They get acclimated to those colder temperatures.
Normally around five weeks of age I do one of two things. For various reasons I might move some or all to my grow-out coop at the far end of the main run. This coop if 4’ x 8’ and has an 8’ x 12’ part of the main run I can isolate. I keep the chicks locked in here until they are coop-trained to go into this coop at night to sleep. That’s normally around 8 weeks of age so that’s when I open the gates and let them mingle with the main flock.
Instead of using that grow-out pen I might just open the door to the brooder and walk away. When I come back later and they areall out I close that door and lock them out. That’s it, that’s how I integrate. I’ve never lost a chick to another adult flock member doing it this way.
There are a few key points. In addition to a reasonably large coop and my 12’ x 32’ main run I have an outside area roughly 60’ x 70’ enclosed in electric netting. I paced it off a few weeks ago, it’s actually a little bigger than I thought. In my climate the chickens can and do spend practically all day of every day outside, they are not in the coop unless they are laying an egg. In my mind the more room you have the easier integration goes. Aart doesn’t have that room so other methods are used to compensate. There are all kinds of different ways to do these things.
I have several separate feeding and watering stations inside and outside the coop, scattered around so the chicks can eat and drink without having to challenge the adults.
Another very important point. My chicks are raised with the flock. Even with that clear plastic or in the run with the grow-out coop, they can see each other as the chicks grow up. That solves basic integration. They still have pecking order issues and will until they mature enough to join the main flock, but with enough room they can handle that.
There are other details and other tricks we use, but this is enough typing this morning. I don’t know what the best method will be for you and your unique system, but the basic idea of raising them outside can work, a lot of us do it.
