Question about a bigger area to keep my chicks in

[7L Farm]

When my chicks were 7 days old I put them in their coop with a heat lamp & a wire cage that I kept covered to keep the wind off of them. They haven't had heat for two weeks. They were completely feathered out at 4 weeks. I however do live in Texas. They went through some cold weather & did fine. They grew their feathers extremely fast & are very healthy. They now all roost at night & are 6 weeks old.

Here's a picture of them I think they were about 10 days old.

 

[pcosmom]

Unfortunately we live in VA and have screwy weather. Last weekend ( not the one that just passed) we had high in the upper 70's and even into the 80's, then this weekend it i cold again high in the 50' and low in the 30's and even down tot he upper 20's.

Can't run a power cord because their is no power out at the land where my horses are, it is about 15-20 minute drive from my house. We spend alot of time out there, all day on the weekends and a couple hrs each day during the week.

The breeder did say that one of those 3 would lay really dark eggs, but I don't remember which one..I was to busy asking him about the price for all the different looking birds he had in the brooders. He had some really cool ones but at $3-$7 a piece I could only get a couple..

 

[TheSitcomGirls]

I use a big dog crate. I cut up a cardboard box and made a one foot high border around the inside to keep out drafts. Then I used Duct tape to attach the cardboard to the wire in a few places. It does a pretty good job of keeping the shavings in.