Moving my six week old chicks from inside brooder to outside coop

[MonicaMerideth]

Hi! I’m new to this forum so I hope I’m doing this right. I have 6 six week old Orpington chicks that I plan on moving to their outside coop from their inside brooder tomorrow. I live in East Texas so the temperatures are already warm but I turned their heat lamp off a few days ago to acclimate them anyway. I’ve read that you are supposed to leave the chicks in their coop exclusively for 5-7 days so they get used to the coop as their new home. Is this the common practice and is it ok to let them out in the run for “playtime” at all, or just leave them in the coop for the 5-7 day timeframe? Thanks for any advice y’all can give me!

 

[cherrynberry]

It may just be me, but when we introduced our chicks to the coop, it did not take 5-7 days for them to know it was home. It took about 1-2 days. I still let them out, but I made sure to bring them into the coop one by one for 2 days, then they just got used to it. But if you have a large amount of land with forests, it is obvious to not let them roam freely without being sure they will come back, good luck!

 

[cherrynberry]

Hi! I’m new to this forum so I hope I’m doing this right. I have 6 six week old Orpington chicks that I plan on moving to their outside coop from their inside brooder tomorrow. I live in East Texas so the temperatures are already warm but I turned their heat lamp off a few days ago to acclimate them anyway. I’ve read that you are supposed to leave the chicks in their coop exclusively for 5-7 days so they get used to the coop as their new home. Is this the common practice and is it ok to let them out in the run for “playtime” at all, or just leave them in the coop for the 5-7 day timeframe? Thanks for any advice y’all can give me!

By the way, always make sure they have water and food available, at least for the day time while they are awake.

 

[Mamatomany123]

My first batch of chicks were the only one I didn't brood in the coop. When I moved them to the coop I never locked them in for days. I just put them in at night until they got it. All of my other chicks I brooded in the coop so home was home from.day 1. They still needed to learn to go in at sunset though.

 

[MonicaMerideth]

It may just be me, but when we introduced our chicks to the coop, it did not take 5-7 days for them to know it was home. It took about 1-2 days. I still let them out, but I made sure to bring them into the coop one by one for 2 days, then they just got used to it. But if you have a large amount of land with forests, it is obvious to not let them roam freely without being sure they will come back, good luck!

Thank you! That makes more sense to me!

By the way, always make sure they have water and food available, at least for the day time while they are awake.

Most definitely!

 

[MTR]

I assume you have no other birds right? If you do I actually don’t restrict them at all - most of them learn monkey see monkey do style. If you don’t I’d leave them in for 3 days and then leave a light on in the coop past dark for several more days. This really helped me get my straggler pullet and cockerels in. FYI if you have a hard to reach run area (under my 12’x10’ coop it’s hard for me to crawl under) you may want to block that area off so you can catch the tardy ones.

 

[MonicaMerideth]

I assume you have no other birds right? If you do I actually don’t restrict them at all - most of them learn monkey see monkey do style. If you don’t I’d leave them in for 3 days and then leave a light on in the coop past dark for several more days. This really helped me get my straggler pullet and cockerels in. FYI if you have a hard to reach run area (under my 12’x10’ coop it’s hard for me to crawl under) you may want to block that area off so you can catch the tardy ones.

Yes, these are my only birds ( for now! ). Those are great suggestions. I didn’t think about blocking the bottom of the coop off. Thank you for your advice!

 

[rosemarythyme]

Some debate on whether or not this works for chicks. I locked my first group of chicks in for a week, maybe 2, because we were still building the run around them, and they were very well homed to the coop when we let them out. Never had to "put them to bed" at night, they went in by themselves.

If your coop is spacious and well lit and well ventilated enough to take that approach, you can, or you can let them have full access to coop and run and expect to have to do some herding to get them back in at night.