Raising Chickens to Hens for the first time! (Maryland)

[junebuggena]

When are they normally fully feathered? Week 6,7,8? I know its probably a exact sience but I just want to do my best at timing this the best I can for my first time.

Depends. The cooler you keep them, the faster they feather in. I brood my chicks in an unfinished room next to the garage. The concrete floor keeps it a near constant 40 to 50 degrees. I use a heating pad draped over a wire frame to replicate a broody hen for their heat source. I use no other heat at all. My chicks are fully feathered in, weaned off heat, and ready to move outside by about 4 to 5 weeks.
Chicks brooded inside a heated house, under a lamp, take about 7 to 8 weeks to feather in, and they must be acclimated to the cooler temps outdoors with field trips out to the coop for short periods, and gradually increasing the time they spend outside.

 

[junebuggena]

So do you open it at Sun up and close it at Sun down?

Yes, they should always be shut up inside a secure coop each and every night and let out in the morning. No it does not need to be at the crack of dawn. Usually, I wait till the sun has been up at least an hour before opening up the coop.

 

[Folly's place]

Welcome! If your run is predator proof, as your coop must be, they can be in the run/ coop all the time, and don't need to be locked in the coop at night.
If your coop is safe, and your run is 'semi-safe', then lock them in every night!
Mary

 

[Living_Legend]

I have two kids in diapers and a full-time jobs the little tasks of opening shutting the door twice a day may make me rethink doing this I plan on getting the feeder that is a PVC pipe that can hold food for 5 days and a PVC pipe water nipple feeder that can hold water for 5 days I still would go to the Coop every single day to check things collect the eggs let him out and stuff when I got home from work but I would want to be able to take my family to the beach on Friday come home Sunday and the birds be fine without me asking for help.

So the only way to do this would be make the Run impenetrable I also saw a place that has solar automatic doors but that idea scares me cuz what if I lock them out or lock them in by accident

 

[Blooie]

I'm too lazy to go through all that indoor brooding stuff, worrying about when to put them out, worrying about why they are afraid of the dark, worrying about them adjusting to being outside......worrying worrying worrying.

So after going through all that the first time with my first batch of chicks, I cut the in-between-stuff out, got (or incubator hatched) the chicks, and raised them outdoors in a wire pen in the run with a heating pad cave. No heat lamp. Every batch, every time. They thrived! Spring chick season for the rest of the country means we are still experiencing temps in the twenties, dropping down into the teens sometimes, with sideways blowing snow. One year our last snowfall was June 6th. Yeah.

 

[kurtandsusanb]

I have two kids in diapers and a full-time jobs the little tasks of opening shutting the door twice a day may make me rethink doing this I plan on getting the feeder that is a PVC pipe that can hold food for 5 days and a PVC pipe water nipple feeder that can hold water for 5 days I still would go to the Coop every single day to check things collect the eggs let him out and stuff when I got home from work but I would want to be able to take my family to the beach on Friday come home Sunday and the birds be fine without me asking for help.

So the only way to do this would be make the Run impenetrable I also saw a place that has solar automatic doors but that idea scares me cuz what if I lock them out or lock them in by accident

I'm in MD also and we had chickens for 3 years without a door on the hen house and only an occasional hawk as a predator and we are in the country. On the 2nd night of putting our 2nd batch of young hens in with the mature hens, a raccoon raided the coop and killed 10 of the young hens. It was awful! We then purchased a battery-operated, solar-activated door that works wonderfully because we have crazy schedules and travel often and didn't want that commitment of putting the chickens to bed every night.

 

[Living_Legend]

I'm in Baltimore County near Maryland PA line. I looked at these solar activated doors. Do chickens ever get accidently locked out at night if they dont come inside before the door shuts? I never owned chickens. Doing all the research now.

 

[kurtandsusanb]

We occasionally see some out when gathering the eggs later at night and always let them back in but I'm sure some have spent the night outside as we don't check them every night. We have never lost any because of it.

 

[Living_Legend]

Cool about what time does the door open and close?

 

[kurtandsusanb]

It' set for dawn and dusk which is of course affected by the cloud cover. Right now it's about 7:00 am and 5:30 pm.