Are Online Duck Guides Overly Conservative?

[Toad9000]

This is my first time around raising ducks, or any type of bird for that matter. Of course, before getting our 5 Khaki Campbells, I did as much research as I could. Virtually every site I saw said that the birds would be brooding until 4 weeks at the youngest, some suggested as long as 6-8! But these birds are growing like wildfire and quickly outgrowing their 75gal stock tank of a brooder. They're both too large and too messy, and with my girlfriend and I both working full time, we can only clean it out once a day which is already proving to not be enough.

At 2 weeks old they're still in their down, with a couple of of normal feathers just starting to grow in. They have been getting supervised baths since day 2 and for the past week I they have been getting up to 3 hours of supervised outside time as well and haven't seemed to have any issues with temperatures down into the low 60's.

Am I way off base in thinking that they're ready to move into the coop now? Possibly with the heat lamp in case of cold snaps in the night. Our coop is sealed off with 4 walls, a roof, and a wood floor. They would be kept inside all night, and I would probably give them access to the connected (and roofed) run in the mornings before work. Then let them freeroam the yard with supervision as usual when I get home around 5, before herding them back into the coop.

Pic is not terribly relevant, but I gotta show off the ducks

 

[KathiQuacks]

I think they can be, yes. Truly, all they need is a warm side, and a cool side. To be certain that the warm side is “warm enough,” I personally start with 90°F, and subtract 1° per day. So, for 2 week olds, that would be 76°F. As long as they have some spot that’s ~76°F, they can run around in those cooler temperatures all they like.

Your coop area sounds pretty safe.. Just make sure the heat lamp is secured very well. The lamps can be a fire hazard especially if used improperly.