Babies in the rain

[Geckochick]

How old before chicks should be allowed out in a run in rainy weather. We are finally getting a LONG awaited rain here, and it is a slow steady rain. Our run has covered portions and an A frame structure for shelter. But, I am nervous about getting the chicks damp, so have not let them out this morning.

 

[Kaeta44]

My guess would be that they should have their full adult feathers before being allowed out in the rain. I wouldn't have thought their first downy feathers were waterproof. Most of my chickens head for shelter when it rains - Mad Irene is the only one who doesn't care what the weather's like.

http://muckycluckers.blogspot.com/

 

[KDailey]

I would put them up until they've got mostly adult feathers.

We got a surprise rain storm here about two weeks ago. It just came down all of a sudden with no warning at all. Thank goodness I was already playing with the chicks in their run and was able to put them up. But not before the rain came pouring down. The chicks completely panicked! By the time I got all the chicks inside I was completely drenched through and had to take shelter with the chickies in the coop.

Everybody was ok but it only took one rain drop to practically knocked them off their feet. I'm at work and it's raining out right now, not too hard, and I called BF to ask him to go put everybody up before the rain got to the house.

 

[10layingladies]

We put our hens out in the run when they were about 7 weeks old. They had pretty much lost all their down and had adult feathers...aka the "awkward look" stage. This was in late April when we were still having cold snaps (KY). The very first day they were out there it came a monsoon of cold rain and was only about 55 degrees outside. The poor things were too new to the run to figure out how to get in the coop so I and my daughter trudged out in the rain to help them inside. They kept coming back out in the rain because it was still a little bit daylight and their coop was darker. They were too used to being under the lamp light so they didn't understand I guess. We finally barricaded them in until it quit raining. They were drenched and it was late evening. I was scared to death that we were going to wake up to ten dead chickens....long story short....they did perfectly fine. Next time it rained they thankfully knew where to go to stay dry.