Moving guinea fowl keets to a coop

[SunnyintheSouth]

I have 20 guinea fowl keets in total, split between two brooders. They're only 2 weeks old but I can already see that space is going to be an issue. There is no way I can keep them in there until the 6-week mark. Do you think it will be okay to move them to the coop earlier, keeping in mind the following:

• I live in the southern hemisphere in a subtropical climate. We're in the middle of summer and temperatures rarely drop below 18C at night.
• The coop has a barn-like section at the back that is insulated with plastic, but open at the front to the "run" part of the coop.
• They've been on a 25% protein feed which we've supplemented with boiled eggs.

Any advice?

 

[R2elk]

I have 20 guinea fowl keets in total, split between two brooders. They're only 2 weeks old but I can already see that space is going to be an issue. There is no way I can keep them in there until the 6-week mark. Do you think it will be okay to move them to the coop earlier, keeping in mind the following:

• I live in the southern hemisphere in a subtropical climate. We're in the middle of summer and temperatures rarely drop below 18C at night.
• The coop has a barn-like section at the back that is insulated with plastic, but open at the front to the "run" part of the coop.
• They've been on a 25% protein feed which we've supplemented with boiled eggs.

Any advice?

At 2 weeks old, my keets are at 80⁰F and flying out of their brooder.

That is when I move mine to my grow out pen which is inside my coop. I turn on a heat lamp in one corner. The heat lamp is about 3' above the floor.

By the time they are 4 weeks old they are usually off of the supplemental heat.

18⁰C is still a bit too cool for 2 week old keets but should be fine for 4 week old keets that have been weaned off of supplemental heat.

 

[SunnyintheSouth]

At 2 weeks old, my keets are at 80⁰F and flying out of their brooder.

That is when I move mine to my grow out pen which is inside my coop. I turn on a heat lamp in one corner. The heat lamp is about 3' above the floor.

By the time they are 4 weeks old they are usually off of the supplemental heat.

18⁰C is still a bit too cool for 2 week old keets but should be fine for 4 week old keets that have been weaned off of supplemental heat.

Thanks. If I really needed to I could make a plan to put their heat lamp in the coop so they have a warm section. I was also thinking of blocking off a part of the barn opening so they have a nook to huddle in.

 

[R2elk]

Thanks. If I really needed to I could make a plan to put their heat lamp in the coop so they have a warm section. I was also thinking of blocking off a part of the barn opening so they have a nook to huddle in.

You should do both.

 

[SunnyintheSouth]

Just in case anybody was curious, I ended up having to move them to the outdoor coop at 3 weeks because they were flying out of the brooder (a makeshift thing we set up in our garage). We created a walled off nook where they could keep out of the wind, and I put a heat lamp in there too. We only keep the heat lamp on at night (night time temps are around 20C now) because during the day we have beautiful sunshine and the coop is quite warm. I think I will wean them off the heat lamp in the next couple of weeks. They seem to be very happy in there.