To move or not to move?

[awizkey]

Hi! The night before easter I bought 4 white leghorns and 4 rhode island red chicks. The white leghorns are at least 1 week older and double the size of the reds. It is getting cramped in the brooder box set up, and I was wondering if I put the white leghorns in the coop for the day to give them some room, will they be ok? Of the 4 whites 1 is a rooster, and he is the one that still has some feathers to come in. The coop gets sun, will they be warm enough? Should I just wait?

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I don't know where you live but here it's mostly 55 F days with a few predicted to be high 40's. That is perfectly fine to have 4 week old chicks out in for the day.

Is the coop empty now with no adult birds in it? If so and you've the means to secure and then double secure your heat source you could move all the chicks to the coop and use it as a brooder. I say double secure the heat source because many use a lamp for brooding and if that falls can cause a fire.

 

[awizkey]

There are zero adult chickens. What do you mean by double secure the heat source?

 

[awizkey]

Also, I have a heat lamp in the "little" brooder box.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

If it's a clamp on light then clamp it then use a wire or other means for second securing system. Double the means to hold the lamp from falling into bedding and causing a fire is all I mean. Don't rely on one thing to secure the lamp use two different independent means to hold it up. May sound a little paranoid but you may be surprised just how many coop fires occur.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Keep thinking about how the white chicks are twice the size of other chicks that you purchased at the same time. Are you sure they are Leghorn? I ask as some box store farm supply places lose track of what is what and birds are often mislabeled. If they are plump and not lanky like a Leghorn there is a good chance you have CornishX meat birds.

 

[awizkey]

Hmm. I don't know. I just thought they were older because they already had half of their first feathers when I got them and the reds were still little fuzzballs. I will look into that. I doubled up using the clam and then used an eye hook to screw in and secured the light with wire to that.

 

[awizkey]

These are from a week or so ago.