Magnolia76
Chirping
I am still very new to raising chickens and for me personally I would scour the forums looking for advice on cold weather and can my chicks handle it. Well, as it turns out my chicks can handle a lot more than google articles leads one to believe! I wanted to just update everyone on what my own experience has been in case it helps to ease your mind! I kept mine in the shower stall in my house where it never got below 68 degrees. At 2 weeks old I went against advice by 5 degrees on how warm the warmest spot should be so when it was recommended to be at 85 I had it about 80, so just a slight difference. 4 weeks I removed the heat lamp altogether as they were acting just fine. They already were getting up on roosts in the brooder to sleep. At 5.5 weeks I felt worried because I hadn't been able to expose them to cool temps yet and they had never even been outside (no good place to let them go explore safely yet) I put them in their coop at 5.5 weeks. The weather seemed appropriate with the low in the 50s. Well South Dakota weather is unpredictable. They experienced crazy wind, rain, a hot day, and this weekend its getting into the upper 20's with highs in the 40s. They only turned 6 weeks 3 days ago! I am wanting strong birds and I do not want to use heat sources. They are doing JUST FINE! I had put a huddle box in the coop, they dont use it. They sleep in a row on the roosting bar, their bodies feel warm the the touch. The coop is not insulated, but I did make sure there are no drafts down low. Its just a thin OSB board coop with some venting up top. They are having no trouble at all. Just being outside in the elements for a few days caused them to feather out even more and get fluffier. So, do not worry... they can handle more than you think! They are not acting miserable or staying huddled together, I can tell they could handle cooler than this at their age.