Can these little guys go outside

[Kentucky Fan]

2 weeks old a mixture of barred rocks marans and two heritage turkey poults. There are ten in total three of the barred rocks are older than the rest as far as I can tell the rest of them are well represented by the chick roosting on the brooder plate. I brood them in my guest bathroom tub but this crew is getting out and making quite the mess. My plan is to put their brooder plate outside in a separate enclosure I am going to build in the main coop. The lowest temperature for the next week appears to be about 28f at night with days in the 60s. Does the braintrust think these guys can make the move or should I wait?

 

[Brooks_]

Can you move the brooder plate out with them?

 

[Kentucky Fan]

Can you move the brooder plate out with them?

Yes I also have a heat lamp available out there as well.

 

[CloneFly]

View attachment 3755560

2 weeks old a mixture of barred rocks marans and two heritage turkey poults. There are ten in total three of the barred rocks are older than the rest as far as I can tell the rest of them are well represented by the chick roosting on the brooder plate. I brood them in my guest bathroom tub but this crew is getting out and making quite the mess. My plan is to put their brooder plate outside in a separate enclosure I am going to build in the main coop. The lowest temperature for the next week appears to be about 28f at night with days in the 60s. Does the braintrust think these guys can make the move or should I wait?

I would wait. Even with the brooder plate, 28f is quite cold for the 2wk olds who don't even have their feathers in yet. Not to mention, turkey poults are quite fragile (at least mine were). Best not to risk it and wait at least another week or two. Can you make a brooder cover using hardware cloth to prevent them from escaping?

 

[Brooks_]

Not a fan of heat lamps. If they will fit under the plate, go for it.

 

[Kentucky Fan]

I would wait. Even with the brooder plate, 28f is quite cold for the 2wk olds who don't even have their feathers in yet. Not to mention, turkey poults are quite fragile (at least mine were). Best not to risk it and wait at least another week or two. Can you make a brooder cover using hardware cloth to prevent them from escaping?

I can and may do that I hadn’t thought of the turkeys being more fragile than chickens.

Not a fan of heat lamps. If they will fit under the plate, go for it.

yeah this is the first year I’ve used a plate and much prefer it. The safety aspect makes me very happy.

 

[Brooks_]

I can and may do that I hadn’t thought of the turkeys being more fragile than chickens.

yeah this is the first year I’ve used a plate and much prefer it. The safety aspect makes me very happy.

Probably should add that the plates are usually rated to 50 F. Would not be bad to use the lamp to keep ambient temp up over the plate.

 

[homesteading101]

Yeah I agree a tad too early to let them out, I can see if they were raised in those temps it would be fine. Let them feather in mostly some peach fuzz is alright

 

[Kentucky Fan]

Yeah I think im gonna hold off a week and then go with @Brooks_ advice on a heatlamp to provide ambient heat. Thank you guys this forum is awesome

 

[SandyRiverChick]

It's been a few weeks, just really curious if/when you moved them outside??? I have 3 week olds that I'm moving out today and it's supposed to get down to *30. I'm using a MHP, heating pad. I actually don't usually keep them in my she shed for longer than 2 weeks but it's been really cold and they're different ages (2 weeks and 3 weeks.) I guess my question is, did you use a plate and a heat lamp or just a plate?