Out of the house and into the coop

[smkchick]

Just wanted to share my experience (my 1st) with moving chicks out to the coop.

I'm in NY and the temps are down to about 50 degrees at night. I have 4 week old chicks that were brooding in a rubbermaid box in a room off my bedroom. There are 3 chicks - Australorp, Barred Rock and Golden Comet - and they were getting too big for the box.

I hadn't been using the heat lamp on them for about a week because I noticed they were moving to the opposite corner. They are almost completely feathered out. I started taking them out for a couple of days, and left them in the coop all day on Sunday. Daytime temps were about 60 degrees. They were fine - no huddling, lots of playing and scratching and running around.

After a very messy escape from the brooder box, I decided to try them out in the coop last night. I partitioned them off from my two older hens, put down plenty of bedding and put batteries in my flashlight. I checked on them a few times and they were fine. No piling, just snuggling together. When I went out just before sunup, they were awake and eating and drinking - all spread out with no snuggling or huddling together, so I guess they were warm enough.

Yay chicks!!

 

[jmtcmkb]

yay! Looks like what I will be doing in the next week or so- mine are 4 weeks yesterday our day time temps are mid 50's... can I ask how did you take them outside? Did you bring them out to the coop, or brind the brooder out?

 

[CupOJoe42]

Two thumbs up!!!

 

[smkchick]

Quote:
I put them out in the coop while the big girls were free-ranging. At night the chicks go into the nesting area, which is next to the hens' roosting area but separated by a transparent piece of plastic (with a 2 inch space at the top to allow for ventilation).

I just don't know how long to give them until I can integrate the chicks into the regular roosting area with the hens. I guess when my oldest hen (16 weeks) stops being cranky and bossy!

 

[ZoeZoo]

awesome,

!
good luck

 

[SteveBaz]

no more heat bc they need it to get the feathers grown out. The colder the deeper and denser the under fluff . They will be very hardy before the cold snap. Perfect timinmg.