My Chickens Flying Out Of The Brooder!

Chicks Can Fly! (sort of)

Okay, this was a surprise…

A few days ago I walked into the room where our brooder is housing 7 chicks until they’re ready to be moved outside to the coop. I startled them (walked in the room too fast?). And guess what one of them did?

The little stinker (actually they don’t stink) took a running leap and flew up to the top edge of the brooder! I wouldn’t exactly call it flying for any significant distance. But it was just enough to make the 16-inch brooder wall for an escape attempt.

I said, Uh-oh…

How to keep chicks from flying out of their brooder

Immediately by brain kicked into gear.
Must. Stop. Chickens. From. Flying. Out.

Fortunately I had a window screen that was just wide enough to fit on top of the brooder! Perfect!

Our “ISA-Brown” chicks are 3 weeks old. This is going to get interesting. Especially during daily chores of food & water re-supply.

Or, when Mrs.J is in there picking up the birds once-in-awhile — making “friends” with them…

Or, like just this morning when we were changing out the pine shavings. They get scared and want to fly away. Oh my…

It’s all part of the fun I suppose, right?

3 Week Old ISA-Brown Chickens

It’s amazing how FAST the little fuzzy yellow chicks grow out into feathers. They are getting bigger, fast. Which is speeding along my efforts to get that chicken coop and run – finished!

I briefly shut off the Red Heat Lamp to take these pictures with natural lighting:

They like to eat.

I wanted to point out how I’ve raised the height of the brooder feeder. Instead of setting directly at ground level, the height helps to reduce their flipping half the food out of the trough into the pine shavings… and their stepping into the trough holes.

Anyway, that’s my chicken update.
FLYING CHICKENS, Oh my…