Today's the big day - out of the brooder, into the tractor!

Just one question. The coop part of the tractor is 4x4. I have 7 six-week-old chicks. Should I leave them in the coop part for a while before letting them have access to the covered run part of the coop? So they will learn to roost and automatically go back up at night? I had some large branches for them to roost on in the brooder but none of them have ever used it. Possibly not high up enough...

Anyway, how long should I keep them in the coop part before letting them have access to the runs?

I would say that is up to you.
We always let ours our into the runs right away.

Just remember the light trick if then don't want to go in......that seems to do it every time.

I don't have electricity out where the tractor is. They've never gone up or down stairs before either and I'm unsure whether they would be 'brave' enough to go up the stairs on their own. The coop is higher off the ground than it looks in the photo.

That is a sweet set up!! I would let them out to play during the daytime. I would just help them in at night. They will learn. Our always did at least. even the showgirls. LOL

The trouble is it might be hard for me to 'catch' them in the run if they want to go hide in the corners. I guess I can lift the run part up. It's quite light.

I'm waiting to hear from son and gf if they want me to take them to town to go out to dinner and then see Julie and Julia. If they do, I'm putting the chickies in the coop and going. If they don't, I'll put the chickies into the coop with the ladder to the run open and let them figure it out while I garden out around the coop area.

Ours were penned up a week in the coop because the tractor/run wasn't finished. They did fine on the ramp. Only one was hesitant, the other 4 ran right down and later up. (Just not at night, until the light.) I'm sure they would like to be out. Just be prepared to coax them into the coop part at night.

Gwen, you don't need electricity. We didn't have it, and ours had to go up a ramp too. If you can place a bright flash light in the tractor, they will go to the light. Ours needed help the first night, but after that when the flashlight was in there in it was getting dark out one would go up, and the others followed.
Eventually you will not have to put a flash light in the tractor, and they will just go in at night.

Ours is 2 feet off the ground.

my coop door is 2 feet up too.. i take each lil one for the first week or so & march thier little rears (with my help) up the steps.. kinda hopping them gently like lil kids do with stuffed animals.. explaining to them that they are suppose to step on this lil ramp & hop right up to this lil door & go in here where its safe. Yes I know I sound like an idiot when i'm doing it but it worked for all of them but the buff orpingtons & it would have worked on them.. but i found out they dont go to bed till the last rays of sunlight are gone.. if i don't rush the little princesses everything works perfectly. (i can't do the flashlight or light in the coop thing bc we have a vapor light that lights everything up all over the yard.)

I ended up going into town to the movies. So the chickies got put into the coop, no access to the run, and I left. I'm sure it's all good. They had some watermelon in with them to snack on and new surroundings to explore. I wonder if they got up on the roosts! Some of them were reaching their little necks up to take a peak at them.

Tomorrow I'll let them into the runs. It'll be fun to watch them exploring all the weeds I left on the ground for them to mow down for me. They are going to be happy little chickies tomorrow!

They look happy in the coop. And they will love the weeds. Mine could completely clear a 5 x 8 area in 3-4 days. (When there were 5, not sure how long with 3).

You will see, they will be perching before long, took ours a little while to realize what the perch was there for. Then one was perching and the next night all of them were, kind of like follow the leader. And that's what going up the ramp was like the first time one went up, follow the leader. When one gets up in it, it will call back down to the other ones.
It was always funny watching ours run out in the morning, they were so excited they almost ran over each other. They are going to love it out there.

Greykyttyn, cute way you have of getting them trained to go in. ^_^
We don't have the vapor lights, so ours go to the light of a flashlight.

Wow! That's a long way from the original chicken tractor... a 4' x 8' chicken wire box. You've got the Rolls Royce of tractors for sure! How big is that thing, anyway?

What lucky birds! =0)

The coop part is 4x4. The runs are each 6x4. This will eventually open to a larger area, approx. 45x10 and there is also a 2' wide run that goes 3/4 of the way around the garden for them to scoot around in. That all hasn't been fenced off yet, altho now that the chickies are out there, I'll start fencing the 2' run off section by section til I get it all done.

In the fall when we have our apple pressing party, I'll have the male guests help carry the coop up near the house where the chickens will spend the winter months. The coop part weighs about 130 pounds but is very easy to pick up and manuever. The runs are really easy to move.