UPDATE question regarding 7 week old chicks going out to the coop...

[Indiana Gallina's]

I just put out 6 6week olds and put a fence down the middle of the run and created a temporary house so they could get out of the rain and wind if needed. Also when I am out there sometimes I will let them mix with the 1 yr old BO that I have and so far they have not picked on any of the new chicks. It seems they are going to mesh very well.

 

[goobhen]

I have two age groups, the oldest are not quite 6 weeks, the other, just 4 days old. I was hoping to put my brooder in the coop, but my husband wants to tweak the coop first..... my older chicks are Splash Orpingtons. They are just the sweetest birds!
Theresa

 

[sherrydeanne]

Quote:
How old were your chicks when you put them out in the coop? Theresa

I had them out at 5 weeks with a light 24/7. Now, at 7 weeks they don't get a light unless it gets below freezing at night. I think it's going to stay above 35 here the next few days so I probably won't use the light again unless it gets really cold. My chicks are all fully feathered and they do sleep together on the roost but don't huddle during the day.

 

[kycklingmamma]

I had divided an area off last week so once I was moving them in it would be ready, then our coop flooded..almost 9" of water in there friday night and saturday....my ducks were actually swimming in it at one point. Looking back, that was funny..not so funny while it was high though. So I took it out when we decided to raise the coop 12" . Now the flooor is redone, coop is high and mighty off the ground, if it floods now, we will have water in our livingroom...I don't have the energy to divide the coop once more, so I was going to use the top portion of the largest dogkennel on the market, so they have shelter if needed. They have all intergrated now during the day for about a week off and on. My oldest are right at a year and the new ones are 7-8 weeks. So far so good, but I think this will be the big test..tonight I will leave them out there.

Kycklingmamma

 

[kycklingmamma]

Hi all, they spent the night in the coop, with the big'uns and the ducks. It went great. They looked a little lost this morning when I let them all out, but it took them a few seconds and after that they were going full speed again. I think they are coop livers now...WOW. The four girls that are left in the brooder are looking rather lonely...I think they can't believe they now have a 4' x 4' brooder all to themselves. Lucky girls. They are only 3-4 weeks so they have to be indise a little longer.

Thanks for all of your insights, Kycklingmamma

 

[sweetie54]

hi! I just put my baby chicks out too and they are about 5 weeks old!!!I put them in with the older hens and they all get along fine!!!I was scared for them at first but all went well!!!!!!!

Oh and theres no heat lamp or anything like that at all!!!!!!!!

 

[marthas_ear]

South of Austin...my Japanese/cochin X banties went out in coop last night at 5 wks old-no light- don't think it got much colder than 60 though.
Lots of wood chips on floor- no problem.
My RIRXDelaware are 4 wks- nearly 5 wks- they are going out tonite!

 

[cackler]

We have 16 I think 4 week olds - I say I think because we're pretty sure that they were born on 4/22 but they are HUGE! (5 RI reds, 2 barred plymouth rocks and 9 black aust) We are new to this so we don't know what they are supposed to look like at this point, but several of them are getting their wattles and combs and all but just a couple of them have feathered out completely. They are in a large stock tank in a shed with a light on them that we are raising weekly & sometimes during the day leaving off as it is warming up. We have 9 older hens that free-range and then return to a coop in the evenings. The 'little' ones are getting so big that we're not sure really what to do next. We would really like to get them out of that tank but they are still pretty little to free-range with the older hens I guess. Would it work to somehow figure out a way to fence off an area in the coop for several weeks so the older girls can come and go during the day as they normally do and then start letting the little ones out? It's tough to know what age is okay so that the farm cats don't have an easy meal as well. Any help is really appreciated as we are learning about this minute by minute.