[hjobri2]

Hi Guys,
I have 10 chicks that i am hand rearing, mixed breeds.  They are nearly 3 weeks old.  The poor things are getting far too big for their brooder cage, they are all flying and seem to live for me opening the cage a few times in the day so that they can fly about the room.  While i realise they still need to be inside at night, we have a disused rabbit hutch 1.5 x 0.5 x 0.5 metres where they would have a lot more room.  Would they be ok in this during the day? Its about 20C here at the mo.

[themagicaltoad1]

They still need to be under a heat lamp, can you get a big cardboard box or something similar for them? I had problems finding something big enough for my 4 as they grew, you've got 10!

[hjobri2]

yeah ten! i nabbed eggs from our hens over the space of a few days, i had 13 eggs originally, 2 didn't grow and one died after a few days incubation, 10 hatched.  Brooder cage is only 0.75x 0.5 x 0.5 metre and they have brooder lamp; mud bath, perchs and water feeder all in there, i've started using the food troughs on the side to give them more room as they are squished!  Looks like i'll have to keep their exercise within the spare bedroom then, just that they keep pooping all over the floor which is messy! AI think i have developed a second job as a poop scooper! Shame they can't go out even for a couple of hours a day.

[hjobri2]

thanks tomshooter,
I actually put them out in the hutch for 3 hours yesterday afternoon and they had an absolute ball! They loved having the extra room to scratch and run around in.  It is warm at the mo and the hutch is sheltered from the wind and they are 3 weeks old, so i will probably continue to do this daily while the weather is nice and i'm at home.  Some poultry books say that letting them outside actually encourages them to feather more quickly, also it won't be such a shock to them, when they do go outside after they have got all their feathers.

[Casey76]

They might feather up quicker, but they won't grow so fast as all of their energy will be put into making feathers. (just the flip side)

[hjobri2]

thats true but they are eating tons! will limit them to 3 hours a day out in the hutch they're just loving the extra room so much.  Will make sure i don't put them outside permanantly until they are feathered and heavy enough to withstand outside temperature.