Topic of the Week - Moving Chicks Outside

[gimmie birdies]

I hatched 15 chicks a month ago, then bought 5 more. Out of the 20 I have 5 boys. They grew faster and do more zoom-ies. I moved the boys to an outdoor pen.

 

[froggyphore]

i always brood indoors because i get babies in early-mid spring and am paranoid about night temps lol. they get days outside in my greenhouse or fenced front yard by 2-3 weeks as long as the weather is fair. i usually put them out for good at 4-5 weeks with a litle supplemental heat until they're fully feathered. i like to give them a dim lamp for a few weeks if they were raised with a heatlamp so they don't panic and crowd into each other super hard. this year i will be moving them out early since it's warm and i got quite a few more than usual.

 

[Hermits Garden]

Just got my first chicks in late April--they're two weeks old today. I brooded them indoors w/ a cardboard enclosure for the first three nights, then out to the coop they went. I feed them Purina Flock raiser, so no change in feed. Their indoor MHP went with them out to the coop, and I've lowered the temperature a couple notches, and raised the front legs of the MPH when they start bumping it around from underneath.

They're feathering out fast, and though our nights get down to the low 30's, they are thriving.

For future chicks, I have a pen within the coop for the wee bitties to start out in, with a pop door to a pen in the run so they have the see-don't-touch integration out there.

Here is the coop pen--for brooding, sick bay, or a rooster time-out.

 

[NeedToKnowItAll]

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After a few weeks, our little fluffy butts are feathered out enough to allow them to regulate their body temperatures and they can be weaned off the heat and moved outside to the coop, or an outdoor brooder. Some of our members choose to brood chicks outdoors from the start even.

There are many ways to do this transition successfully, so this week I would like to hear your thoughts and practices when it comes to moving chicks outside and having them adapt to living out there. Specifically:

- Do you brood your chicks indoors or outside and if the latter, how do you go about it?
- If you brood indoors, at what age do you do the transition from brooder to outside?
- Any tips for making the transition easier for the little ones?

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We have brooders outside on our screened in porch. It's worked out wonderfully. We move them from the tubs to largers brooders we have on the other side of the porch as they get bigger and at 6 weeks old we move them to our "transistion" coop. Our transition coop has its own little run but is attached to our main coop and run and seperated by hardwire. With the weather getting warmer it's making the transition alot easier. We usually wait until the babies are about 8-10 weeks old before moving them into the main coop at night after everyone has gone to roost. I've had luck with everyone getting along BUT our white leghorns and Orpingtons and I cannot for the life of me figure out why. They are one week apart in age so they have been next to each other practically their whole life. We moved the orpingtons in at night ans rearranged the coops in the main run and added fun things for them and all but the white leghorns, which were the first and only ones in our main run and coop until the orpingtons came along, bully the orpingtons and run them off anytime they come near. It breaks my heart bc the orpingtons are so sweet. They're not hurting them they just don't want them anywhere near where they are.

 

[TXKukupantsKoop]

After reading all the posts in this thread, I made the big move. It's plenty warm here. The last two nights in the garage have been without a light because it was so warm. They did great...no huddling. So here's what I've set up. Thoughts?

 

[bertogomus]

I brooded them indoors for about three weeks. Moved them out to the shed with heat if it got under 50.
We made a transition coop for them and kept them them in there during the day for two weeks to acclimate them to the older hens. For the last 5 days they have been out in the big coop and they LOVE it!! The biggest issue has been keeping them from eating the big girls food. I hope someone addresses how to put them to roost with the big hens!!!

 

[bertogomus]

As a newbie to chickens, this is all helpful info. Thanks for sharing, everyone.

My chicks are a little over a week old and before reading this thread, I was nervous about moving them from the house to the barn. Not anymore. They're going in the barn tonight.

Is it possible for the brooder box to be too big? Would that cause any problems? I recently moved and have a bunch of boxes and am planning on moving my seven chicks to a wardrobe box which is something like 2'

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.

What do you do at night with them?

 

[3KillerBs]

The biggest issue has been keeping them from eating the big girls food.

I have my entire flock on 18-20% protien all-flock type feed with oystershell offered separately for the layers.

 

[LittlesNBigs]

We're first time feather parents. We got our girls the first week of February at 1-2 weeks old. We kept them in a large dog crate with straw bedding for 3 weeks before setting up an x-pen with a large plastic sign for a floor and straw bedding (all of this in our bedroom!)

At about 6 weeks we would bring them outside with supervision for a few hours a day until letting them stay out until they fell asleep in their coop and brought them back in by 10 weeks. We live in Eagle Mountain, UT so we were quite paranoid of the large raptor population coming after our babies.

At about 8 weeks, we were given a set of 3 grown Brahmas with their own coop by a neighbor. We had the littles in another x-pen in the yard at first to see how they all responded to each other. The littles learned to give space to the bigs pretty quickly and each flock was already familiar with their own coop. Just last weekend we finally stopped bringing in the littles at night. (Yes, our girls are super spoiled!)

We keep the dispensers with the crumble and the layer feed in the appropriate coop runs and they don't generally bother each others food.

 

[Blooie]

I brooded them indoors for about three weeks. Moved them out to the shed with heat if it got under 50.
We made a transition coop for them and kept them them in there during the day for two weeks to acclimate them to the older hens. For the last 5 days they have been out in the big coop and they LOVE it!! The biggest issue has been keeping them from eating the big girls food. I hope someone addresses how to put them to roost with the big hens!!!

I have my entire flock on 18-20% protien all-flock type feed with oystershell offered separately for the layers.

I don’t ever worry about feeding according to production, gender, or age. My tiny chicks get a bag of Starter….the smallest bag I can find….and when it’s gone they get what the rest of the flock gets, either All Flock or Grower. We are in a pretty rural area (the nearest TSC is a 50 mile drive one way, and not very big) so I pick up whichever they have in stock or whichever has the best freshness date. By the time that first bag of Starter is gone, they are already spending lots of time outside of the brooder among the adults. I provide a separate container of oyster shells on the side for the layers. It’s worked flawlessly for years.

As a side-note, when I put my chicks out in the brooder pen, I hang the adults’ feeder and the chicks’ feeder next to each other with just the wire of the brooder between them. I do the same with the waterer. That way they learn to eat and drink peacefully together, so when the chicks begin integration at around 2 weeks old the adults are not bullying them away from resources. When I toss the Bigs some scratch in the evening, I toss it right next to the brooder pen. I also toss it on the chicks’ side inside the brooder. Again, I do this so there is no squabbling over treats when the Littles are starting to spend time out among the adults. It’s proven to be a wise practice.