When to move chicks out

Great renovation. None of the wind will get on them. Plenty of space and a place to huddle up together for warmth. They'd probably be fine out there even in the cold this week but the shock of going from 70 to 30 degrees would scare me too. They will make it through the winter with no problems. Y'all made them a good place to live.
 
Great renovation. None of the wind will get on them. Plenty of space and a place to huddle up together for warmth. They'd probably be fine out there even in the cold this week but the shock of going from 70 to 30 degrees would scare me too. They will make it through the winter with no problems. Y'all made them a good place to live.


Thank you! Closer to the spring we'll add more windows for more cross ventilation. We also are going to add some access doors behind the egg boxes. We're waiting for timber buyers to come harvest trees and those 2 pines will be gone. We've considered extending the run out a bit when that is done.

So we have left them as they have been doing fantastic. I have been checking on them every hour. They settled down great at dusk. They're huddled in the middle of the coop, no one getting squished, and seemed happy. The warmer box is there and I tried to show them, I'm assuming they'll use it if needed...

I'm sure I'll be checking on them multiple times tonight (probably not necessary but I'm just going to do it lol) and am prepared to bring them in if necessary. I'm probably more worried than they are haha.
 
They will be fine out there tonight. And it will give them a little taste of freedom. It isn't supposed to get cold until after the front moves through tomorrow. They will sleep better tonight than you will.
When you make the windows next spring remember this weather now. You'll want a way to block them off from the winter winds. I'm glad y'all saved the long shelf to use as the nesting area.
In a couple months you'll have 26 in there. Where are you going to add extra roosts?
(And belated congratulations on getting out of the city)
 
They will be fine out there tonight. And it will give them a little taste of freedom. It isn't supposed to get cold until after the front moves through tomorrow. They will sleep better tonight than you will.
When you make the windows next spring remember this weather now. You'll want a way to block them off from the winter winds. I'm glad y'all saved the long shelf to use as the nesting area.
In a couple months you'll have 26 in there. Where are you going to add extra roosts?
(And belated congratulations on getting out of the city)

Thanks, we're so glad we are out! Haha.

Our front windows (under the ventilation windows) have covers on hinges. We'll do that to the back as well. We did cut off half of that shelf to have room for the roosts. My husband originally was going to put them on top of the other half of shelves. I didn't want to clean the poop off the shelf everyday and would rather it just fall in the deep litter. The current roosts don't take up that full space so we'll move them over and make a second set. I definitely like having the shelf for the nesting boxes. I am debating making a ladder (later so they don't sleep in them before laying) to get up to the boxes as we have a couple heavier breeds. It will be nice having an in-coop brooder underneath them so we don't have to brood in the house anymore. That's where this second batch of chicks will be for a few weeks until they get big enough to mingle.
 
Yeah, with the nesting boxes that high, they might be tempted to sleep in there. I still haven't run electricity to my coop yet, so all the babies are brooded on the back porch, then moved to the coop. You way is a lot better. I need to get off my lazy butt and run wire out there for lights and a MHP for a brooder before next spring. Or maybe I will convince my wife that 40 chickens is enough and we don't need to increase the flock beyond whatever they hatch out themselves.
 
And you've still got plenty of room under roof already to expand the coop next spring! Just pull the truck out in the yard and you've got room to double the coop and a small pen for goats too! You know you want to....
 
I didn't catch this post until this morning.

But as it turns out you've got this, so no need for me to add a thing! You got great advice and no need to clutter it up! I'm so glad that I stopped raising chicks indoors for just the reasons you mentioned!

Having the coop and run hardwired for electricity has been a lifesaver here. It's one of my favorite features of our setup. I have safe power for running MHP during chick season, I have access to power for the small stock tank heater we use to keep water from freezing, I can run a fan on miserably hot days, and I can flip on a light switch if I didn't get to my chores before the sun went down. That, however, is usually not a popular activity when the chickens are already on the roosts!
hu.gif
 
And you've still got plenty of room under roof already to expand the coop next spring! Just pull the truck out in the yard and you've got room to double the coop and a small pen for goats too! You know you want to....
Haha...we've already had goats planned possibly in the spring. If not then the following spring! We intend to order meat chickens and turkeys (may throw in a guard goose for good measure) this spring lol. May as well go all in!


So the chicks did fabulous the first night. Last night was when it got the coldest. I made my husband go check on them at bedtime and he herded them into the box with the warming plate just in case. They stayed there all night. When we woke, my phone said it was 34 with a "feels like" 27. Walked in the cool (I always have dread when doing that lol) and called out and they all came running out of the box ready for breakfast, excited to see us. So I think they are doing just fine. Thank you for all the suggestions and advice! So glad we decided to go ahead and do it! They love the room and we love our house back :D
 
So now that we survived Friday and Saturday (our brand new central heat went out), we are supposed to have 70's for the next few days! You might even be able to let the brooder chicks outside to scratch around for a few minutes.
Do y'all have a thermometer in the coop? I checked mine Friday and it was 42 in the coop and 36 on the back porch. Didn't expect that, but happy about it.
 

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