Moving 8 week old chicks outside

I'd say a couple more days and they'll be acclimated enough. Just keep an eye on the weather. Wait till it won't get below the 20s for a few days.

I'm meaner than most, I guess. Our first year with chicks I couldn't handle the mess, the dust and the noise for one more day! So when they were 5 weeks old I shut off the heat lamp in the brooder, cracked the window in the room they were in, and listened to them scream their protests when it got dark in the room that first night and they didn't have their light on. By 5.5 weeks, on April 1st I evicted them out to the still-unfinished coop. Temps out there were in the 20s and dropping. I put a heat lamp out there and then as the temperature kept dropping that first night I'd get out of my nice warm bed and check on them. They were snuggled in a pile of beaks and feathers in front of the pop door - nowhere near the heat lamp. The second night it was the same story. The third day the heat lamp came out - they didn't need it so I wasn't going to risk it. That night it snowed. And we continued to get snow up until our last snowstorm on June 6th. They did great. If I'd waited for perfect temps here in Wyoming they would have been laying eggs in the brooder!

Now, like @Ridgerunner and many others, I brood outdoors from the start using the heating pad method RR mentioned. As long as they have a place to warm up - in RR's case the side with the light, in my case the heating pad cave - they do fine. They actually need that cooler area to encourage fast feathering and acclimate to the environment they will spend their lives in, and with no light glaring all the time they learn that once the sun starts going down it's time to sleep. They don't sit under a broody hen 24/7, so why do we heat their entire area and think we're doing better than Mama Hen?

At this age your birds are more than ready to go out without a heat source, but I do understand your reluctance. Personally I'm much happier now raising real chicks instead of dependent little Divas, and all I do is duplicate Mama Hen as closely as possible.

Edited to add this:

My chicks are 8 weeks...the temps in michigan are in the 20's still at nite and morning...can they go to the coop permanently??

ChickenCanoe said:

At 8 weeks they won't need a supplemental heat source.
Also, the heat doesn't have to be 250 watts. There are ceramic heat emitters that are available from 25-300 watts.
They could go out now with a 75 watt emitter and much less fire danger.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odk....TRS1&_nkw=110v+ceramic+heat+emitter&_sacat=0

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Hello....my chicks are 8 weeks old now.. They will be ok in the coop with temps in the 20's at nite??

I would, but then I tend to be more matter-of-fact when it comes to chicks. At 8 weeks they should be fully feathered. Oh, they'll be pretty mad at you at first, but they get over it. Mine did just great at 5.5 weeks with no heat source at all.

Blooie said:

I would, but then I tend to be more matter-of-fact when it comes to chicks.  At 8 weeks they should be fully feathered.  Oh, they'll be pretty mad at you at first, but they get over it. Mine did just great at 5.5 weeks with no heat source at all.   

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Thank you so much we are first timers living in the city and trying to be self sufficient raising our own flock. We've also had one chick with "crazy chicken disease" but been feeding/watering with vitamins and shes doing better