New Chick Care: How to safely move a chick from brooder to coop

When your tiny, fluffy, peeping chicks arrive, it feels like a major accomplishment. You have your brooder set up and ready, the chicks are happy, so all the hard work is over, right?

Well, not quite, because the chicks are going to grow — and fast! Every few days, they grow taller, put on weight, and gradually develop their true feathers to replace their baby chick down. While these days in the brooder are fun and interesting, they are also limited. Soon, your chicks will need to move into the main coop. It's a big step for the chicks, so you want to do this in a manner safe for them.

When to Move Chicks to the Coop

Let's start with what you shouldn't do. It’s not wise to suddenly remove your chicks from the security and warmth of the brooder and turn them out in the coop. Instead, you need to slowly acclimate the chicks to their new environment.

During their first week of life, plan to keep the brooder at about 95°F and then slowly reduce the heat in the brooder environment by roughly five degrees each week until they're about four weeks old. You don’t necessarily need to use a heat lamp. The K&H Thermo-Poultry Brooder has an adjustable height that you can raise as the chicks grow and uses far less electricity than a heat lamp. The brooder comes in two different sizes to accompany different chicken breeds.

Your chicks can likely come off the brooder's heat after a month once they're better dressed in their new true feathers and are acclimated to a climate around room temperature. You can somewhat gauge the readiness of your chicks by how much time they spend around the brooder’s heat source.

But they'll still need an additional two or three weeks of growth to gain physical size and vitality and make a healthy transition to the coop. They're ready to move into the new coop once they're more than 6 weeks old, are fully feathered, and aren’t relying on the brooder’s heat for comfort.

How to Move Chicks from Brooder to Coop

You want the transfer from brooder to coop to be as simple and low-key as possible so as not to upset the chicks. It can help if you bring some familiar items with them, like the feeder and waterer from the brooder. The K&H Poultry Waterer is designed to prevent spills and mess, and it's heated to keep the water palatable in cooler weather. Some people even sprinkle a bit of the chicks' old bedding with the new bedding to help bring the familiar smell of their old brooder into the new coop.

If this is your first batch of chicks, they can move right in. But if you have older hens already living in the coop, you want to keep the two mini-flocks separated for a time while they get used to each other and while the chicks get a little bigger. This "together, but not really" time will give the chicks and hens a chance to become familiar with each other. Plus, it helps keep the chicks from being bullied by the older hens.

Separate the two flocks by using chicken wire fencing — one of the few instances where it's actually helpful. (It's really too flimsy to be used as protection from predators.) When you do begin to let them mix and mingle, keep a close watch for bullying and pecking, and ensure the chicks have access to food and water. If you see trouble, separate them again and proceed more slowly.

Your chicks can regulate their own body temperatures at this point. If it’s chilly outdoors — colder than the temperature the chicks have acclimated to — you need to offer a heat source inside their “grown-up” coop. Try the K&H Thermo-Peep Heated Pad that the chicks can use when they want to warm up a bit. The pad is nice because the chicks can come and go from it as they please, only warming up when necessary. You can even mount the pad on the side of the coop's wall — it works just as well this way and maybe stays a little cleaner.

Upgrade Your Chicks from Brooder to Coop When They're Ready

Your chicks are warm and safe in their baby brooder, but they can't live there forever. Every baby needs to be kicked out of the nest at some point! Luckily, it's not hard to make the transition to the coop. You just have to be sure they're ready to handle the transition, and you're ready to referee should older hens decide to be territorial.

This article is part of a series to help you navigate a few of the challenges of raising chicks. Be sure to also check out New Chick Care: How to Prevent Chicken Brooder/Heat Lamp Fires.