When to move chicks from Brooder to hen house?

[meandwi]

Hello all from South Florida,
We have a few questions, we hope ya'll can help?

We're building a coup this weekend for our 10, 4 week old chicks. We have a nice brooder, but they seem to want more space.

At what age do we move them?
Food type change, When and what?
When can they start roaming around the farm without the cage?

Thank you,
meandwi

 

[my1stchicks]

If your weather has been anything like mine, 90s during the day and lows in the 70s at night you should be able to put them out now.

Hopefully someone else from FL with more knowledge will answer soon.

 

[Lea71]

Hi there.....mine have been in the henhouse since day one. For the first week I kept them in a kiddie pool, but they were flying out at one week. So we just closed the door, locked them in and turned it into one big brooder. They seem to really love all the space. We keep the heat light low to the floor for warmth, about 3 ft off the floor and change from the red to white bulb depending on the temp outside. Our days have been anywhere from the 60's to 80's and dropping into the 40's and 50's at night. Mine are three weeks old today. They fly from one end of the coop to the other, hop ontop of their nesting boxes....they just run all over. This morning when I went into the coop, I could have sworn they were showing off for me, they all started hopping around and sparring with each other (in a friendly chick way). Good luck!

 

[gritsar]

Although I live in Arkansas, I watch Florida temps pretty closely since my Dad lives there. Your chicks should be fine outside now so long as your coop is draft-free. If you are raising layers, change them to grower feed @ 6 - 8 weeks. Mine are 8 weeks old now and they are allowed to roam the half acre fenced in yard with semi-close supervision. Our outside cat becomes a temporary inside one during these times and I make sure I know where the dog is too. They get along fine with the goat. He ignores them, and they ignore him.