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

[Loyal Heights Poultry]

BTW, to make this more complicated, our Cochins might be bantams. Not sure how I would tell. They're still smaller than our big girls, but aren't laying yet, so maybe they have more growing to do. But I remember the guy at the grange muttering something about bantam when I was picking them out, but it was a big coop with a lot of young adolescent birds and he may have been mentioning one of them. He was facing away from me at the time, chickens were squawking, and I'm slightly hard of hearing.

 

[Criticalicious]

I recently put six half-feathered babies outside in a coop. They're 4 weeks old. Daytime temps ranging from 55 to 85 and down to 45 one night. They have been doing fine, although they have the heat plate in the coop at night in case they need it on particularly cold nights like last night. Recommended temp for 4 weeks old is 70 degrees. Guess nobody told the chickens?

 

[featherhead007]

People..... Don't take anything I say seriously.
I raise a flock of chickens as pets! Should I explain any further?

 

[Parront]

Former Seattle retiree here (now in AZ, where it is raining) . . . mostly they would like to be DRY! A nice dry dust bath is great, and a roof so that they can get out of the Seattle Sunshine!

 

[Henriettamom919]

Hi, I live near you and yes, mine are outside and just fine. I'd make some kind of division, though. Even if it cramps them temporarily it's still going to be better than the brooder. Could you set up an outdoor area just for them during the day and place them in the roost with roost dividers up at night?

Initially we put garden stakes in the front yard, wound chicken wire around them to form a play pen and they only went in the brooder at night to sleep. You could do that until your coop expansion this weekend!

 

[Loyal Heights Poultry]

Hi, I live near you and yes, mine are outside and just fine. I'd make some kind of division, though. Even if it cramps them temporarily it's still going to be better than the brooder. Could you set up an outdoor area just for them during the day and place them in the roost with roost dividers up at night?

Initially we put garden stakes in the front yard, wound chicken wire around them to form a play pen and they only went in the brooder at night to sleep. You could do that until your coop expansion this weekend!

Hi, neighbor!

The playpen idea is a great one; thank you! We may have enough material at the house to put that up this evening. The chicks will go nuts over real grass and access to our best dust bath.

 

[Henriettamom919]

Hi, neighbor!

The playpen idea is a great one; thank you! We may have enough material at the house to put that up this evening. The chicks will go nuts over real grass and access to our best dust bath.

Yeah, this little trick saved our chick butts the last few days of coop construction because they were going nuts in the brooder all day!

How are yours doing with our breezy day? Mine are not too fond of this wind stuff

 

[Loyal Heights Poultry]

They're inside today, luckily. We're having a crazy day and may not get a chance to pen them until tomorrow night. Meanwhile, they're trying to pop the lid off the brooder by standing on the waterer (upside down mason jar type). I had to put a chunky tech book on the brooder lid. We weren't expecting them to get so big so fast! If I open the lid, they can come close to flying out of the brooder (it's about 2' tall--if we brood again, we're going to have to build up, I think). They are so very clever in their chicken-y way...I just love them!

 

[Angelicsatire]

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.

I'm in Sumner and my girls are just fine outside it should be plenty warm for them to be out