Another "When to move my chicks" Thread

[Wawa Coffee]

Hi all. There are a ton of threads regarding moving chicks from the brooder to the coop. All of the advice seemed to say that with a heat lamp in the coop early ages are doable. I am not putting a lamp in the coop but am aiming to move the chicks out around 4 or 5 weeks of age.

Daily temps in my area: upper 80's
Nightly temps in my area: mid to upper 60's

Am I asking for trouble if I put 4 week old out this early with no heat source?

Thanks in advance for the replies!

 

[Egghead_Jr]

"Am I asking for trouble..."

Absolutely not. I put 4 week olds out in the spring when High's are 50's with no additional heat. If I have a batch of chicks late spring/early summer they are put out at 3 weeks.

 

[Wawa Coffee]

"Am I asking for trouble..."

Absolutely not. I put 4 week olds out in the spring when High's are 50's with no additional heat. If I have a batch of chicks late spring/early summer they are put out at 3 weeks.

Awesome - thanks!

 

[feather13]

Thanks, Wawa Coffee, for starting this thread and Egghead_Jr for responding. I was pretty cavalier with my last batch of twelve chicks. I put them in a coop with small run (in a larger coop and run, so not in direct contact with older birds) and locked them up in the coop at night so they'd stay warm. It was 85-90 degrees during the day, roughly, and maybe high 60s at night. I don't know what happened, but at least five of them died quickly. They didn't appear sick, but just died (no predators). Am wondering if they got sick from the full grown chicks? We have nine new, 5 week old chicks and I'm a bit more nervous this time putting them in the coop.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Do you have a problem with cocci in your soil? It's devastating to chicks before they build an immunity to it. If that's the case you should use medicated feed for chicks or have corrid onhand.

 

[feather13]

Thanks--I don't know if there's cocci in the soil. Is there a test I can order to determine that? I live in southern California where the soil is sandy and very dry (although we had torrential rains in spring). I think a chicken that was given to us might have had coryza or Newcastle's (because of its symptoms), but never had cocci symptoms. I don't know what caused such a big chick die off last time Didn't mean to hijack this thread, but there are so many different opinions on when to move chicks outside.