Baby chickens to the garage, Chicago

[Valormitch]

Hi all,

I'm new to raising chickens. I have 1 week old chickens currently living in my basement with a heat lamp. I'm wondering when is a good time to move them to the garage. We live on Chicago where our weather is currently 70-85 Fahrenheit and down to about 50 F at night time. The garage is not heated.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you,

 

[azygous]

Is your garage going to be where your chickens will permanently live? At your current temperatures, your chicks could be living outdoors.

So, yes, they could go out with just a bit of heat during the nights for a few weeks.

 

[Valormitch]

Is your garage going to be where your chickens will permanently live? At your current temperatures, your chicks could be living outdoors.

So, yes, they could go out with just a bit of heat during the nights for a few weeks.

Thank you for your response. They will not be living in the garage permanently. I am in the process of building a chicken coop for them to live in year-round that is outside. The coop will not be done for 2 more weeks though.

 

[azygous]

The garage will be good for acclimatizing the chicks to living outdoors. They will likely not require heat during the day when it's 75 to 85F. Just turn it on at night. By the time the chicks are five weeks old, you can turn the heat off at night.

Watch them at night around the time they approach four weeks. If they are avoiding the heat at night, not sleeping under it, you can turn it off then.