Topic of the Week - Moving Chicks Outside

[nenebynature]

I got five babies on a whim with a gift card to my local farm store the third week of March. I kept them in the laundry room for four weeks before I got fed up with the daily bed changing. They also quickly outgrew their “brooder”. My laundry room is not heated and with the crazy weather they feathered out very quickly. I move them to the big girl run in a doggie playpen that I laid wire shelving over to protect them from curious big girls. Now they are free ranging with the big girls as of Sunday. I keep them in the playpen but leave the door open now so they can come and go as they see fit. They are learning their pecking order quickly but seem to be integrating so much better than last year’s babies. I kept last year’s babies separate for a lot longer in the garage because my addition took longer to build than I expected (life and Murphy’s law). The big girls are ignoring the baby starlets this year for the most part. I love being able to have them in the run with the big girls. It makes feeding and watering so much easier. I can’t wait until I’m able to take out the playpen and let them start roosting with the big girls.

 

[Smr]

I move my chicks out at 4 weeks. I use a heat source at night if it gets cold.

 

[alexa009]

Out of the batches of chicks I've raised I've always brood them in a garage or barn where there is electricity for a heat lamp. Since we have predators where we live I usually don't move them outdoors until 8 weeks of age.

 

[Bigted]

Ours are going out to the new coop/run by next weekend, they will be 6 weeks old then. Had them in an indoor brooder, kinda wish we had started this moving process earlier, but as others have mentioned this crazy weather around here. We have been slowly introducing them to the run during the day with supervision and they seem to LOVE it. Also, we have been taking the food away at night with the light off and they have had no issues.

 

[Blooie]

Ah, I thought this would be a good place to ask this question; how long can chicks go without food/water?

I'm nervous about shutting the chicks up in the coop at night, because I'm afraid that I'll be depriving them of nutrients they need if they don't have 24/7 access to food and water. At what age is it acceptable for, say, 9 hours to pass between waterings/feedings?

Under a broody hen, they go without eating or drinking from sundown to sunup. So do mine using Mama Heating Pad. But since my choice for brooding chicks is brooding them exactly like she does (except she moves around and their heating pad doesn’t) that may seem a little uncomfortable for many people.

 

[tbopilot]

We have one hen left from our original 6. She is 5 years old. We will be getting 6 more chicks this week and have a cage to keep them separated for about a week. We do not know how "Smut" is going to react with the new ones. The weather is warm enough now I don't think we will need a heat lamp. But, we will have one in place if they seem to be chilly. If they seem ok, we will let them out in the big yard after about a week.

 

[carlsonbwin]

We just moved our 4 chicks out to their coop for good. Started putting them out during the day and bringing them into the garage at night, but they are outside permanently now. They are 4 weeks old and almost all feathered out. We live in central Alabama so it is pretty warm even at night.

 

[Ccaplan]

I just put them in the run because I wanted the brooder to be spacious, I wanted the adults to be able to walk openly all the way around it, and our run was a hoop mostly wrapped in tough, mesh-reinforced plastic - think greenhouse. If I could have achieved all of that in my coop, they’d have been set up in there.

Our setup is different than a lot of them. Our pop door between coop and run was open 24/7 year ‘round. It was secure, and once we got it secured, we secured it some more. My electrician hubby wired the run and the coop, so I had safety outlets in both. So yep, I brooded my chicks in the run, and would continue to do so. It worked perfectly for 8 batches of chicks.

You just need to do what works for you, your setup, and your personal comfort zone.

Hi! Ok this is all new to me and you're scenario seems closest to my situation and question(s). I currently have our mama hen and her two chicks in the rabbit hutch we built which I have in the coop. They are only 4 days old and so far so good but I need to move them to something bigger soon...https://www.farmstore.com/product/p...n-pen-for-the-old-red-barn-ii-chicken-coop-2/ I was going to buy this and simply put it in the coop (which is a barn and outside are all netted). So they have more room but are still in the coop - I love your idea as the chicks have been "interacting" with the big girls since day one. Then 1) what do you think of this transition brooder 2) does Mom stay in the brooder (the link) when I transition 3) Do I transition later this week when they're going on 2 weeks old 4) when does the last step happen - do they literally live in the brooder until they're 4 weeks with feathers? Won't the mom get tired of all of it? Thank you!

 

[Harmony Fowl]

Hi! Ok this is all new to me and you're scenario seems closest to my situation and question(s). I currently have our mama hen and her two chicks in the rabbit hutch we built which I have in the coop. They are only 4 days old and so far so good but I need to move them to something bigger soon...https://www.farmstore.com/product/p...n-pen-for-the-old-red-barn-ii-chicken-coop-2/ I was going to buy this and simply put it in the coop (which is a barn and outside are all netted). So they have more room but are still in the coop - I love your idea as the chicks have been "interacting" with the big girls since day one. Then 1) what do you think of this transition brooder 2) does Mom stay in the brooder (the link) when I transition 3) Do I transition later this week when they're going on 2 weeks old 4) when does the last step happen - do they literally live in the brooder until they're 4 weeks with feathers? Won't the mom get tired of all of it? Thank you!

When mother hens raise chicks, they go all the way, several weeks at least. She's unlikely to stop mothering them anytime soon, so any transitional brooder must be able to accomodate her, too.

The rest of your questions can be answered, in my opinion, all at once. You can keep the chicks confined, either in the hutch you have or the one you want to buy, but there's not much point in doing it for much longer. When blooie talks about transitioning chicks, she's generally (as I recall) transitioning chicks without a mother, ones she's hatched or purchased herself. Such chicks have no adult on their side in an existing flock and need a period of transition with the adults so the adults become accustomed to them and view them as part of the flock when they are eventually allowed contact with one another. With a broody hen, so much of that is moot. She brings them off the nest when she's ready and acts as their guide and defender from the other birds, who typically show little interest. Mom already belongs, chicks are a normal part of life they just accept. If they do peck at the chicks, mom defends them. Mother hens range in how good they are at mothering, but most do an adequate job.

What to do now and when to release them is up to you. Sometimes I segregate broodies while they sit, sometimes not, depending on my resources and space. By a couple days old, I let them come off their nests with their chicks and all have done so. Aggression from the flock can still happen, so some keep them confined longer, but by the time they are outgrowing that space you have them in now, I would say it's time for them to join the rest of the flock. The additional brooder really isn't necessary. The only issue you will have is that your current brooder is off the ground and the chicks won't be able to get back into it when their mother probably returns to it at night. You can make some kind of ramp, but at that height, I don't know if four-day-old chicks would figure it out. I would set them up some kind of shelter underneath the hutch, close the doors on the hutch itself once mom leads them out (they can jump safely from there just fine) and let mom bring them to their shelter under the hutch or set them up a spot in the coop itself. My current broody hen sleeps with her chicks underneath a piece of lumber that leans diagonally against the wall in the coop. It happens to be where she had her nest. She still gathers her five-week-old chicks to her at night, plus some six-week-olds whose mother has already abandoned them.

They definitely don't need to stay in any brooder for four weeks. Their mother will keep them warm when they need it, which is generally the factor in consideration when folks talk about waiting until they are fully feathered.

 

[Ccaplan]

This is the BEST advice I've been given by ANYONE and beyond anything I've read... I cannot thank you enough. I'll pick up that brooder (even if it's only for a few days as the underneath area isn't ideal in the barn, kind of gross...) and just get them out of the hutch since it's elevated to your point and then let that be the place they go nest in at night... perhaps I leave them all with mom in there for a few days at worse so she goes in there.
Two more questions:
1) Do I leave their food in there with that tiny water & feeder for chicks that I'm using now? As I have a huge water trough as my birds hate the hanging water container and refuse to drink out of it since it's in the 90s. I'm afraid the chicks will drown --- but perhaps I leave them in the brooder with mom until 2 weeks and at that point they're big enough? it's a large trough probably too big for 11 hens and a roo.
2) Ditto with food - can I mix grower and layer together and leave that out for everyone?

This is brilliant - and SO helpful - I cannot thank you enough for this. ~Christy