New chicks How long do I keep them in the brooder.

[Saerasx]

@Strader I have 2 Black Australorps, 1 Cuckoo Marans, and 1 EE

 

[jwcloud]

I thought about brooding my chicks in the house but the wife said no so she gave me a reason to work on the barn and spend money for my chickens ILL SHOW HER lol

 

[gander007]

We were brooding our 4 chicks in a large plastic tote, lasted maybe a week and a half. Now they are in the upstairs guest bathroom tub. I put a large beach towel down and then their shavings, Brinsea heat plate, and the portable perch from the coop. They are probably around 2.5 almost 3 weeks old. But here in the suburbs of Portland Oregon we have been getting such wonky weather. If and when we do move them to their coop would it be a good idea to move the heat plate out there too?

In your clement I would say yes as I am sure it is still nice and cool & damp .....

 

[gander007]

Quote:
For the first 18 months about 5 to 6 egg's a week and it tapers off from there but the Russian Orloff will produce egg's during the winter months when other hen stop producing ..

Good meat bird ....

And yes hard to find and harder to find of good quality ....

 

[chickengirl2014]

Kept mine in around 8 weeks i think

 

[Chickbunny]

My three are in a spare bedroom. We just got them today, they seem to be fine. But I would love expert advise.

 

[dutchlion]

Chicks need to be in a brooder until they are feathered. Our were inside a little too long at 8 weeks... and it depends on your weather as well. They will need to go out when the weather stays warm enough for them not to need a heat lamp. I think it's generally 6-8 weeks that they can move out.

We were not set up with a grow out pen - which is the in between stage from brooder to coop. I didn't know that there was such a thing. So ours moved at 8 weeks from the brooder to the coop. It was consistently in the mid 50's at night and in the mid 70's during the day. By then they hadn't needed a heat lamp in several weeks, and we'd left the window in the bedroom open during the day and evening so they could acclimate to the outside temps.

If you don't already, I would put pine shavings on the news paper. Newspaper is slick for little legs to stand on, which can cause spraddle leg (i think that's what it's called). just a thin layer will be enough for them to have something to stand on. also, there are some great blogs like fresh eggs daily and the chicken chick that you can read up on raising baby chicks. i read everything i could get ahold of when we started in chickens- just last year.

Good luck!

 

[tsmith91]

I used our spare bathroom to put my brooder in this time but never again i will brood in my building outside from now on this was my first time and I thought they would be too cold outside even with a heat light just the anxiety of being a first timer

 

[McChics]

I love this site. Lots of people doing the same thing...with the same questions, but we all have different houses, yards, environments...and chicks.

We took our girls out for about 20 minutes in the coop in the sun on Saturday while I cleaned the brooder. They were really stressed at first, but after a few minutes started picking grass and looking for bugs. Our brooder is 4 foot by 4 foot for only six - so I put a log chunk, some bricks, a stick/roost...and a flat spot covered in news paper that I change daily by their food/water. The rest of it has about 3" or so of pine shavings. I notice they migrate closer and further from the heat lamp through the day. My wife put a timer on the heat lamp so that it goes out a bit at night to get them use to darkness (I think it cuts out for 30 minutes).

Our temps are in the 60-70s during the day and 40-50s at night. Babies are in an insulated (but not heated) garage.

Three babies are one week older than the other three.

I'm anxious too about making sure I don't take them out too soon...or too late.

The coop is 98% ready to go.

We think the babies were around a week or two old from Tractor Supply when we picked them up.

 

[jtn42248]

I love this site. Lots of people doing the same thing...with the same questions, but we all have different houses, yards, environments...and chicks.

We took our girls out for about 20 minutes in the coop in the sun on Saturday while I cleaned the brooder. They were really stressed at first, but after a few minutes started picking grass and looking for bugs. Our brooder is 4 foot by 4 foot for only six - so I put a log chunk, some bricks, a stick/roost...and a flat spot covered in news paper that I change daily by their food/water. The rest of it has about 3" or so of pine shavings. I notice they migrate closer and further from the heat lamp through the day. My wife put a timer on the heat lamp so that it goes out a bit at night to get them use to darkness (I think it cuts out for 30 minutes).

Our temps are in the 60-70s during the day and 40-50s at night. Babies are in an insulated (but not heated) garage.

Three babies are one week older than the other three.

I'm anxious too about making sure I don't take them out too soon...or too late.

The coop is 98% ready to go.

We think the babies were around a week or two old from Tractor Supply when we picked them up.

It really is a crap shoot in the long run. Depending on weather as well as age of chick and how well they are acclimated to ambient temps they can go out earlier than the 16 to 20 weeks that is recommended "in the book". The important thing is that they are completely feathered (all their down has been replaced by feathers). If they have a coop to move in to that is warm enough and free of drafts and your weather is warm during the day and not cold at night AND they give every indication that they are not getting cold in their brooder you might be able to move them out sooner. I have moved chicks out of the brooder as early as 11-12 weeks but temps at night were in the 80's and the chicks had most of their feathering done.