Fully feathered?

Jkaczanowski

In the Brooder
Mar 30, 2016
11
0
22
Hi everyone. I'm a first time chicken momma to 5 week old chicks. The first 4 weeks were spent completely indoors with a Premier 1 heating plate. But last week was warm (60's and 70's) and the chicks were starting to seem cramped so we've been bringing them outside during the day and back indoors at night. They have a 4x4 coop with their heating plate and the whole thing is inside a 10x20 dog kennel covered in hardware cloth. The chicks have seemed happy and aren't upset until we go to bring them in at night. This Thursday night it's supposed to be about 50, but will be dropping back down to about 38/40 Saturday night. Here is a picture from Sunday...

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I'm trying to figure out if they are fully feathered and ok to start spending nights out there on Thursday in the coop with their heating plate?

Thanks!

Jennifer
 
Feather-wise, they look great. BUT, always a but, will this be their first time being acclimated to those temperatures? If so, I'd start lowering the temps in their brooders inside before throwing them outside with such cool temperatures. That way they don't get a shock to their systems.
 
Thanks for your advice.

I put them outside this morning at 52 degrees but it warmed up to 55 within the hour. It's now at about 58 out. Today was the coldest day they've been out yet. I sat out with them for the first hour and sporadically throughout the day and they seemed happy - no clustering or distress calls. I think that's why I'm considering Thursday because the low is only 50. Then it goes down 5 degrees each of the next 2 days so it will be a gradual change. I worry that I'm overthinking this.

Jenn
 

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