At what age do you turn off heat lamp?

My mother last year left a mother and her chicks with the flock and all the chicks were killed by the other hens, yet I myself have left the mother in the flock with no problems.
 
My mother last year left a mother and her chicks with the flock and all the chicks were killed by the other hens, yet I myself have left the mother in the flock with no problems.
A lot has to do with flock dynamics and where the momma was in the pecking order before she went broody. If she is up pretty high, then others will not want to cross her. If she is low, then that status is handed to the chicks as well. That is why I have a brooding area ready for my silkie. She is my broody but she is really low in the pecking order, as well. I'll have her a nice run to raise her babies just to be safe.
 
When I now leave a broody to hatch eggs I also set up a special run as I find the mother and chicks are much more relaxed and happy. I don't introduce chicks to the flock until they are about 4 months old.
 
Mine are almost three and a half weeks old. House kept, we keep it above 65 at night. Just as an experiment, I just shut off the heat lamp. The chicks got really quiet, and now are standing around like "what happened" to the light? Now they are circling the plastic bin, very curious about the change in their environment. Getting noisy again...that didn't take long. Turned it back on..."and the chickens bowed and prayed, to the heat lamp that I made..."
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I'm really sorry, but I can't answer this question, as I have only ever put my chicks in natural lighting under a ceramic heat lamp, so when a stop the heat at 4 weeks the chicks are fully feathered and ready for life outside at 5 weeks old.
 
my new chicks are now seven weeks old today, I have three adult chickens outside in coup,
now that it is nice out and warmer during the evening and weekends been putting them outside in their dog kennel so that they can get used to the bigger chickens and bigger chickens can get used to them, since I have to slowly intergrate them, and they have to be bigger before we can put them in coup unprotected, so that the bigger ones won't beat them up.
will let them run around in grass we will see what they do, they will usually stay close to their kennel and not wander off to far.
so hopefully by the time they are big enough the older chickens will be used to them,
I'm hoping for a smooth transition,
 
I have a permanent chick enclosure (a temporary pen with green netting round, secured at the bottom with stones and bird netting over the top works just as well) where I keep the chicks until they are about 3 to 4 months old, I usually integrate them at night so they all wake up together, you will find they will have to find their pecking order, which I find takes 2 or 3 days, there has never been an injured chick during this period, just a few squawks. I do the same when buying adult birds too. Good luck and happy chick raising.
 
What mama kate said, plus...

They can go outside at anytime as long as your coop is draft free and predator proof and you are able to keep it at the temp. needed per their age.  Not everybody broods chick in the house.  I hate to sound like a broken record, but I think the fact that alot of people believe they have to be brooded in the house discourages them from owning or adding to their flock. 

I didn't brood my chicks in house and won't brood any future chicks in the house.  As much as we love our chooks they are livestock.  In the good ol' days mama hen hatched the chicks in the coop and they were raised with her as part of the flock.


This is the same reason I've decided to go with the idea that in the good old days they didn't have electricity in their hen house/ coop either and I'm not going to put any in mine either. I mean farmer generations before us obviously knew a thing or two about raising chickens, right? :)
 
I use a brooder in my unheated garage. It is a pool with elevated box and lamp. At 2 weeks I replaced the heat bulb with 75W bulb (cause the heat bulb broke or burned out) with no problem since it was fairly warm outside. With this setup, the chicks find the temperature they need. If it is too warm, they stay away from the lamp, if they are cold they huddle under. In the first week, if it gets cold at night like it does by us, I cover 3/4 of this setup with a large tarp or car cover, but leave one end open. I think it is just as important to make sure it is not too hot - they need to be able to find as cool a spot as needed. The chicks do a pretty good job of finding the temp they need. At the start of the 4th week they go outside in the tractor.

 
My baby chicks are now fully integrated in with the big girls, for a month now, the chicks are now 18 weeks old,
they were about 13 weeks old when I put them in and it went smoothly but before I did that, they were in a kennel hauled from the garage to the back yard for weeks before and then let out to run with big girls, eventually the big girls quit picking on he younger ones, and they are doing well together now yea.
the only one is my older hen is broody so she gets a little cranky and protective so she picks on the younger ones in the morning but they have learned to stay away from her.
she should calm down when she is done being broody, and we don't have a rooster,
she did the same thing last summer, my little girls are now laying eggs. the Rhode Isl red started laying at 13 weeks, and now the others are laying here and there.
I took the babies off the heat lamp when they were fully feathered and it was getting warm outside in the garage.
 

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