when should i put my chicks skittles and ginger outside

[chews chooks]

theyre 7 weeks old and they will be put into reasonably price coop it wont be the best quality but wat are your recomendations

 

[RelaxGeorgetown]

8 weeks. No more, No less. Always works for me. Any older and they get pecked if there's chickens there already.

 

[chews chooks]

thanks there are 2 older ones about 19 months old any tips on introducing them

 

[lavender pekins]

shove them in there they'll fight but let it happen unless theres blood otherwise if you take them out they have to suffer twice. I don't want to sound mean but they will always fight to sort out a pecking order!

 

[RelaxGeorgetown]

lavender's right. No easier way to do it. Maybe trying to do it in the late afternoon. They typically go into quiet mode when it gets dark. Just a thought

 

[aggiemae]

I put my chicks/pullets in the coop at around 10 weeks. This is after keeping them in a portable run in the middle of the yard where my hens usually pretty much ignore them. I do this for about two weeks, then I let them all loose in the yard together for a couple of days during which the hens mostly peck at them and chase them into the bushes.

Once things calm down some I put the chicks in to coop after the hens are sleeping, With some chicks I only need to do this for a few days before they go in on their own some (the timid ones) do take longer. The first few morning I open the coop as soon as I hear rumbling. Usually, having been pushed off the top roost, I find the chicks waiting on the coop floor and the hens are still up on the roost.

Having spent the day in their portable for two weeks the chicks are used to getting breakfast in the portable run and so they bee line it out of the coop and main run to the chick food and fresh water I put out the night before. I shut them into the portable and then re-open the main coop door so the hens can come out into the main run and have their breakfast of layer feed ( I will pick it up so the chicks/pullets don't have access).

This sounds complicated but takes under 3 minutes and since I am not a farmer after I am done I go right back to sleep. We let the chicks and hens out to free range mid morning til dusk