My chicks are four weeks, are they ready?

[Grits&Eggs]

They already do that in my family room when we let them out for play time.

How do you keep down the dust?
I added a dust bath around week 3 - they love throwing the dirt in the air and all over - but now when I let them run, they leave little trails of the fine dirt/dust everywhere!!
I have corralled off a portion of my run and they get to play in there just because of the dust issue

 

[Mybackyardpeepers]

How do you keep down the dust?
I added a dust bath around week 3 - they love throwing the dirt in the air and all over - but now when I let them run, they leave little trails of the fine dirt/dust everywhere!!
I have corralled off a portion of my run and they get to play in there just because of the dust issue

I use a large piece of indoor/outdoor carpet that they are confined to. I vacuum every time after I put them back. I also use a dust bath container, but I don't quite think ours figured out what it is for. I see them try to bath on the carpet more, lol.

 

[Peppercorngal]

All went well till all the big girls went into their coop and the SLW's ran to their coop and wanted in..broke my heart to hear them cry, they were panic stricken...so i let them in their old coop....ill try again tomorrow

I usually raise my chicks in a separate coop and run, I call it Coop #2. When they have all feathers and are older I let them out to "free range" with the rest of my chickens (28 others), who were raised and live in Coop/Run #1. There is plenty of room for chicks to run away from any unwanted pecking and such while free ranging. They will automatically return to sleep in Coop #2 for a time, but eventually they make their way into the pecking order of the flock. I find they start to return to sleep in Coop #1 after a while. I let them integrate themselves and it works for me.

 

[woodmort]

One other point, it is a lot easier to integrate a large group—10 or more—than one or two. When there are a lot of targets the older birds lose interest pretty fast.