Would building a in-coop brooder help integrate baby chicks better?

[Celeeste]

So I'm designing a wooden coop for my future farm and I was wondering if it'd be easier/effective to build a brooder inside each of the different bird species coops. Would there be any problem with having a brooder in the coop? I would probably using the lil mama hen warmers or something.

 

[whiteboy]

Yes it would help with integration.

 

[DobieLover]

So I'm designing a wooden coop for my future farm and I was wondering if it'd be easier/effective to build a brooder inside each of the different bird species coops. Would there be any problem with having a brooder in the coop? I would probably using the lil mama hen warmers or something.

It is very useful for early integration of chicks and can double as a maternity ward should a hen go broody.

 

[RobertaD1]

DO IT! You will actually wonder why you didnt do it before!

 

[Ridgerunner]

That's the way I do it. Chicks go in mine straight from the incubator or post office. At five weeks I open the brooder door and walk away. That's how I integrate.

Some warnings. I have a large coop with several places they can hide. I have a lot of room outside and weather so mine can stay outside all day every day. My young ones can and do avoid the older ones as they grow up.

This is my built-in brooder.

I don't care where mine sleep as long as it is not in my nests and they are predator safe. Mine don't generally sleep on the main roosts until they mature. I put a juvenile roost lower than and horizontally separated from my main roosts and higher than the nest to give them a safe place to roost that is not my nests. This solved a lot of problems.

You mention "different bird species coops". That implies to me that you may not have as much space as I do so you may get different results. But in any case having the brooder in the coop should make integration a lot easier.

To me another benefit is that they are exposed to the adults from hatch so they can start working on flock immunites. I think that strengthens their immune system.

 

[Finnie]

I have brooder spaces sectioned off under the roost/poop boards on my coop. There are some things about them that are a huge pain in the neck. Yet I put up with those things because it is so convenient to be able to brood chicks there. I once saw someone post their brooders which were built up at waist high level and the chicks could look out the windows. That would be so great, but in my coop it would mean taking up roosting space.

 

[Finnie]

At five weeks I open the brooder door and walk away. That's how I integrate

Yes, this is how I integrate too.