Are my chicks ready to be outside?

[Ra_]

Mine go into the goat house after 4 or 5 days in the brooder. They run around all day and at night I put them in a cage on a heating pad wrapped in a towel.
Florida here. I remove the heating pad when they are two weeks old.
They are never in distress and are always softly chirping their contentment when they're not running around like maniacs.
I have 2 and 3 week old chicks and I just got the flock of them trained to climb back into their cage by themselves last night. In the morning, they BURST out of their cage.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Weaning them as in lamp only at night or just stop using it all together

Have them off heat all together.

We have cooler temperatures than you. I yanked the heat off my chicks at about 3 1/2 weeks. I would've done it at 3 weeks on the dot but we had a day of heavy rain in forecast the day after so hubby asked me to delay it. I waited for that rain to pass, then shut it off and kicked them out of the brooder that night.

 

[tmcdonald226]

Mine are 3 weeks old today, no heating plate for 3 days now but I've kept them with a night light...should I cut it off at night?

 

[rosemarythyme]

Mine are 3 weeks old today, no heating plate for 3 days now but I've kept them with a night light...should I cut it off at night?

They don't need a night light at all, especially if they're outside. The slow reduction in light during dusk will naturally tell them it's time to go to bed.

If they're inside, a dimmer would be ideal to replicate that effect, so they're not suddenly thrust into darkness from a light being flipped off.