Booting them outside

[deegee68]

Hello,

I currently have 25 Cornish Cross that are two weeks old (as of March 18th)

I live in Iowa and the weather has been all over the place. 80 degrees one day and 48 hours later a blizzard. They currently are in a brooder in my garage. My question is, I had them scheduled to go out into the chicken tractor on the 25th but I guess if needed I can send them out a few days after that. Please take a look at the attached 10 day weather and offer any suggestions on when to boot them out to the tractor. I greatly appreciate it.

 

[50-45-1]

Mine always go out before 2 weeks regardless of the weather.
But I do move them out with the heat lamp and adjust the bulb size for added heat source if they need it.

 

[FunClucks]

At 4 wks old, they're ready to go out physically. I held onto mine until 5-6 wks due to weather, and they got more cramped than I wanted them to be in my garage setup, but we managed just fine. I started processing a few birds a week at 5 wks to give the remaining chickens more space. If your garage is unheated, it should be pretty comparable to what they'll see outside - you want them to be acclimated to the outside weather temperatures including day/night swings. So make sure they have plenty of space in the brooder where they can be out of heat lamp range and get used to garage conditions, which should be close to outside conditions.

Once you put them out, keep them dry and put up sufficient wind breaks, and they should be okay. I'd put them out after April 1st, between the 1st and the 8th depending on weather. Before 4 wks old, they aren't fully feathered (even then you'll have some stragglers), and I didn't want to deal with heat bulbs out in the covered run. By 4 wks or later, most are fully feathered and physically large enough to manage themselves. It might seem silly to hold a bird in the brooder for 4 weeks when you'll be processing it at 8 wks, but they need that time to mature and acclimate. Unless you can put out heat and keep them out of the wind outside in the tractor, I'd wait until 4 wks to put them outside in the tractor.

 

[COPbird-fl]

Commercial pastured producer weighing in.

I kick mine to grass at three weeks or feathered, which ever happens first. With those night time temps, I'd recommend you have a propane tank top heater. Observe your birds, if they huddle this is okay, but bait balling on top of each other isn't. Additionally with those day below sixty days, be able to block the wind or tank top heat.

The above advice is nuanced, and I would only apply it to birds under 5 weeks (or not fully feathered). Also, with these low highs and low lows, be prepared for a horrible FCR.

 

[FunClucks]

Commercial pastured producer weighing in.

I kick mine to grass at three weeks or feathered, which ever happens first. With those night time temps, I'd recommend you have a propane tank top heater. Observe your birds, if they huddle this is okay, but bait balling on top of each other isn't. Additionally with those day below sixty days, be able to block the wind or tank top heat.

The above advice is nuanced, and I would only apply it to birds under 5 weeks (or not fully feathered). Also, with these low highs and low lows, be prepared for a horrible FCR.

Thanks for your insight!

FCR - feed to something ratio?

 

[Mountain Roost]

Feed conversion ratio

See here for example.

 

[deegee68]

Update:

Temp is dropping instead of getting warmer. They will be 4 weeks on Tuesday so I moved the tractor into the shop. It's not heated but at least there is power and a break from the wind and rain. 50 mph winds on Friday damn near took the tractor. I will give them a couple of heat lamps and move them out on Tuesday.