When can chicks go without heatlamp

So the 41 "kids" are now 4 1/2 weeks old and looking more like little chickens and less like puffs. Their heads and necks are the last to get the feathers - still whispies of fluff mixed in with some new feather growth. They graduated to their coop 9 days ago & love it. (I think I can watch them grow by the day!) Our nights are still chilly (frost the last 2 nights, but predicted to be in the 40's at night this week) & our days are in the 50's and upper 60's by the weekend. I have the heat lamp set up in the corner of the coop yet on 24/7. On the warmer, sunny days when the coop warms over 70 degrees I turn it off. At night it's always on. At what point can I leave it off for good and have the chicks rely on their feathers to keep them warm??? A lot of them are hanging out on the roosts when I greet/feed them early in the mornings...which leads me to believe they're almost ready for the heatlamp to be removed.

I take my heat lamp away around 4 to 5 weeks old, depending on the overnight temperatures. My 5 week olds handle nights in the upper 40's fine. I really don't know what minimum temperatures they can handle at that age, just that mine handle what I throw at them. It really helps if they are in a draft-free coop.

I have 17 in this batch and they still sleep in a pile in the floor, but I think that is more for comfort than warmth. They like to be wiith, on, or under their buddies. With your 41, they can really help keep each other warm.

I can't give you clear answers in your case because you have lower temperatures than I do, but maybe this helps.

Thanks for the quick info - We just built their new coop...a combination of the TajMahal and Fort Knox There are 4 south-facing double-hung windows, fully insulated, and concrete floor with wood chip bedding (I'm switching to sand in early June when it's warmer). It's basically an extension of our current steel building so it "blends in" nicely. (I've got to figure out how to add pics here!) I think I'm giving them until the weekend with the lamp and then they're on their own. Next task is getting a run set up for them - right now it's a temperary little fence where the kids "chick-sit" the little girls when it's warm out (which hasn't been a lot lately...brrrrrr!)

I have the same question, altho my situation is drastically different than yours. Our temps are about the same, but I've only got 4 chicks! The hen house is a 3x4x2.5 plywood box with what is currently the top hinged. I've been leaving it open with another piece of plywood covering 2/3 of the top, and a heat lamp hanging about level with the plywood. (I've fenced off a piece of my yard behind my shed that we weren't using for them, it already had 6 ft privacy chain link on two sides, the shed forms the other side, so we just used lattice and chicken wire to make gates and they have an L shaped yard back there. About half of the yard is already covered with a tin roof and was used as wood storage by past owners of the house, so I don't have to mess with waterproofing or anything on my hen house.)

I actually wonder if they wouldn't be better off without the light and with the roof closed. Sometimes when I check on them at night they are all snuggled together in the wood chips under the lamp, and sometimes they are roosting kinda halfway under the lamp. They appear to be fully feathered now, (got them the week before easter) but don't have combs or anything yet. they are two Easter Eggers and two black sex link.

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