Raising Baby Chicks WEEK 6

WEEK 6 Update on little miss Ladybird (Barred Rock Plymouth) and Cornelia (Ameraucana).

Here is how I take care of my baby chicks (tweens?) in Week 6.

Follow along with me each week until these baby chicks have fully feathered and joined my flock around 8-12 weeks old.

You can subscribe at the bottom of this page for email updates, or follow me on Instagram or YouTube.

Week 6:

🐥 The heat lamp is gone! I removed it completely. Their feathers are pretty much all in, so they should be plenty comfortable when it gets cold. (It’s only 45-50 at night right now in CA in October.)

🐥 I still bring them in every night into their garage pen. They go back out in the morning to be outside all day.

🐥 I moved their outdoor area into my existing chicken yard, but they are still separated from the adults with chicken wire. I want them to get used to each other for a week or two, and give the youngsters more time to get a little bigger. They will probably be defending themselves once fully integrated, so size does matter! 😆 I feed them chicken scratch treats together so they are next to each other while eating yummy snacks, hoping for good associations and not too much drama once I release the youngsters in with the adults.

🐥 As always, keep fresh food, water, and snacks available at all times.

🐥 This is the last week I will bring inside each night – next week they are officially moving out!

🐥 If you have reached this point and do not have other chickens, you are probably good to move them out into the coop. Six weeks old and fully feathered is a pretty typical age to live outside permanently, I just give mine a few more weeks to ease the transition from indoor babies to becoming part of the flock. The bigger they are, the better they can defend themselves against pecking/terrorizing, and I believe a slow transition helps them get used to each others’ presence before just throwing them all in the ring! Chickens can be territorial, aggressive, and downright mean. I have had to re-home a hen before because of all the chicken drama, so that may be why I draw it out longer than technically necessary in hopes of a peaceful merger.

Stay tuned for Week 7 next Wednesday! They will be sleeping outside, and I’m also planning to build a new coop area entirely at some point.

Please leave your tips and comments below, I’d love to hear your own experiences and successes! (Or lessons…)

– Kate