Preparing Chicks to Move Outside

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MedSchlFarmers

MedSchlFarmers

Chirping
Jan 5, 2016
249
13
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North Carolina
My chicks are 5.5 weeks and nearly 8 weeks old. They were in the house with a heat lamp until about 2 weeks ago. They have been in the garage with a heat lamp for the past 2 weeks. I hope to move them to the coop next week. Should they be ok tonight in the garage with no heat lamp to transition? We live in North Carolina. Lows are around 30 at night right now.
 
I would say yes.
What I did was turn off the heat lamp in the day, and just plug it in at night for a couple of days. Then, on in the daytime and off at night. Then just all off. This was over the course of a week.
But, if you want to get them outside faster, I would say they should be ok in an enclosed garage.
 
Thank you! I didn't sleep well last night, worried about them without the lamp. I woke up and went straight to the garage. They were all asleep and just fine. Whew!
 
They are well insulated with nice little down jackets. You shouldn't worry.

Do as the others recommend. Remove the heat lamp and let them slowly acclimatize to the cooler garage temps and then move them outside. They will do splendidly without any heat.
 
Update, so the chicks have been in the garage with no heat lamp for the past 2 days. They temps warmed up a bit, so they are out in the coop currently. The low tonight is higher than the nights the spent in the garage with no heat lamp. Low of 43.

They won't go up into the roost where they have wind protection and even a heat lamp for added comfort and enticement. I have seen 5 of the 8 go up there and sleep during the daytime or to play. Why are they sad and staying on the ground right now? At the ground level there is only hardware cloth, no walls.
 
They aren't "sad". They are used to sleeping in a cozy pile....they have been doing that for a long time. I put my first chicks out on April 1st when they were 5.5 weeks old. They had a heat lamp out there for the first couple of days, but they weren't even using it. Temps got down to the 20s. Hating heat lamps as much as I do, the lamp came out. That night it snowed, and we didn't get our last snowfall until June 6th. They just kept growing and thriving. Yours will figure it out. They don't always do that on our time schedule, but they do get it. You could put them into the coop at night so they know where to go. Some folks close them up in the coop for a week or so until they learn that it's home. They really don't need a heat lamp out there.
 
Thank you. The silkie is chirping the loud "distressed chirp" everyone else seems ok. They are locked in the coop but the bottom part is covered with hardware cloth and open and the top half has walls....if that makes sense, but they are locked in there. They have been playing in the coop warm days for the past few weeks. I guess this chicken mamma has to let them grow up
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