sick of trying to build a brooder/grow out pen - so i bought this:

[angelobutter]

thanks- i went halfway and just covered up the back half of the pen. that way half the mess goes to the pan below but they have half the cage to rest their toes if they need to. thanks for the advice.

 

[angelobutter]

there is one dang chick that INSISTS on pushing all the food out of the feeder and taking a very wasteful dust bath! i cant make her stop and she is wasting all the food!!

 

[Cknldy]

Put a pan of sand/dirt/ashes in for them to dust bathe. You WANT them to bathe as it is their natural way of keeping clean and keeping lice/mites away. A few days after mine were dust bathing in their feed pan (and I figured out that they weren't having seizures!) I gave them a cat litter pan and they were happy. After giving yours a dust area, raise their feed to shoulder height and you won't have the mess or wasted feed. Good luck

 

[PoultryGirly]

Are you planning on bringing this pen outside when they are more grown? I was thinking of buying this coop with the run and put it outside for a grow-out coop. Any recommendations?

 

[angelobutter]

I have a coop with a run similar in size to this one that I use as a baby/isolation/sick pen and it works great for just a few chickens. a lot of reviews on amazon say it falls apart and I have found that NOT to be the case. it seems quite sturdy. my only complaint is that there is no wire on the bottom (presumably so the chickens can graze if you move it around like a chicken tractor) however I don't move mine and it just allows some sort of small predator to dig under and eat 6 of my RIR chicks last year. not a flaw that most coops don't have but it is worth mentioning i suppose. I have not put this particular model outside yet- but it is the plan once it warms up a bit.