5.5 week old chicks in Seattle area--are our temps moderate enough to boot them outside?

[Loyal Heights Poultry]

Hello,

We've bought pullets and raised them as pet hens for several years now. This is our first batch of chicks. They are now 5.5 weeks old. We've taken them off the heat lamp and they've been living in the brooder in our living room at standard indoor temps.

I hate to lose them and put them outside as we've worked really hard to socialize them and make them accustomed to human handling. There are 2 buff orpingtons and 2 light brahmas. In the Seattle area right now, highs are mid-60's to low-70's and lows are low 50's to upper 50's.

They are getting cramped and cranky in the brooder, so I'm thinking it may be time they moved out. Problem is, our introduction area is occupied by 2 Cochin pullets who are having a hard time integrating with our mini flock of 3 girls. They keep getting chased and bullied. We're going to solve that partly with a new run and dual coops, I think. But that's about 6 weeks away.

Could the chicks go outside and could the chicks hang with the pullet Cochins? My son read that Cochins are easily bullied. Maybe if the Cochins ally with the chicks, they'll feel safer in the larger flock?

Thanks for your advice.

 

[Fluffnut]

Welcome! Great choice of chicks. If they are fully feathered they should be fine outside. Could you separate part of the section the Cochins are in, integrate them, then if it goes well integrate them with your other three?

 

[Loyal Heights Poultry]

The section with the 2 Cochins is a bit small to subdivide again, even though the Cochins are pretty sedentary. But maybe we can build a temporary annex to get the chicks and Cochins to be buddies. I'll see if I can get my husband on that tonight. He knows what materials we have on hand and how we might get it to work. The coop is up in a weird raised bed that makes expanding a bit tough, as we run into rocks pretty quickly on two sides and trees and fence on the other two.

 

[rosemarythyme]

They'll be fine temperature wise. The chicks may or may not be ok with the Cochins in the long term, however you'd still need to find some way of keeping them all separate at the start for integration.

 

[featherhead007]

Don't put them out in the cold, they need the warm indoors, and they prefer TV/Cable
Or WIFI if you have it!

 

[Loyal Heights Poultry]

Don't put them out in the cold, they need the warm indoors, and they prefer TV/Cable
Or WIFI if you have it!

So that's where my bandwidth is going--it's not the human kids after all!

Are you serious, though, when you say it's too cold for them? Our living room is like a green house and we're using a heat pump to stay at 74 degrees inside when it's about 65 degrees outside. Not sure how to ratchet them down to go outside. The June weather here is so unpredictable. We can have 3 or 4 days in the 80's and then go right back to the mid 60's the very next day. Could we put them outside in their brooder box for an hour or two per day to give them some exposure?

 

[Loyal Heights Poultry]

Talked to my husband and we agreed that the new coop we were planning to build in July/August will get built starting this weekend so we can get the little ones out into the big wide world.

The vague plan is to make a large, human height run and have a "loose" raised coop inside the run that provides night roosting and nesting. I'm now thinking that we should build two loose coops, one larger and one smaller for isolation/integration and make the larger coop subdividable with hardware cloth so that chickens can see each other but not peck at each other.

Any other "integration friendly" coop ideas are totally welcome.

 

[Celticdragonfly]

I'd think they'd be warm enough. But yeah, need some sort of "see but don't touch" set up for integration. Even if you were only doing that in the day?

 

[trumpeting_angel]

My brooder I s in a bedroom where I’ve shut the heat vent and opened windows. As soon as we get the WiFi and cable installed in our coop, those girls are going out! (6 weeks)

 

[Loyal Heights Poultry]

My brooder I s in a bedroom where I’ve shut the heat vent and opened windows. As soon as we get the WiFi and cable installed in our coop, those girls are going out! (6 weeks)

Of course! We can move them downstairs, where it's about ten degrees cooler and has windows that open (we live in a mid-century house with large, non-opening windows). Thank you for jostling my brain! I'll miss their peeping, though. They wake up at the slightest movement and are better guard dogs than my dog.