Broody has 4 week old babies in the cold... OK?

[Roxannemc]

Am i being too picky ?Broody has her 3-4 week old babies out in the 30's weather .Im concerned.Never had babies outside this young.
They have feathers but not all of them Will they be ok if they aren't in the wind? i have a large coop she takes them in sometimes that block the wind and is full of straw.days
I would add a heating lamp if i thought shed use it for them. She drags them out in the grass and around the yard to forage
.The makeshift coop they sleep in is not as air tight and warm as this big one is.but a lot smaller.
The floor is hardware cloth with feed bags and newspaper over that and some straw.I have added a heating disk for dogs in it next to her nest box at night the disk stays warm about 5 hours inside ...don't know about outside in a coop. Cant move her and them fro m there as its hard to get into it Small door is not close enough to reach in.NO ppl door to get them. .Too small cramp to leave them in there all day

 

[foreverlearning]

If she has been a good mama they will be fine. When they get cold she should let them under her wing to warm up. I am not as cold as you but my broody has since day one let them run around for a bit and when they get cold they run under her wing and she lays down to warm them up. Then as soon as they are warm, they go running around again. They need to get hardy for this winter and that is what she is doing. Adding a heat lamp will make it harder for them to get used to the winter weather. I have seen pictures of week olds in the snow being raised by a broody and their owners all report that they did great. Here is a great broody thread for anymore questions you may have about the process:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/496101/broody-hen-thread/2670

 

[LTygress]

Yep, they'll be fine. If you haven't found one frozen yet, you probably won't.

During the summer, I was ALWAYS spending time out in the chicken pen with my broody hens and their babies. I noticed that anytime they were not in the nest, and the chicks got scared or just felt a gust of wind, they would run over to momma and disappear under her. There were times when I thought I was missing chicks, and realized momma hen seemed to have triple the number of legs!

Momma hen's body is just the right temperature, so they would also sometimes hide under her to escape the sun. There was plenty of shade in the pen, but they didn't want to leave her, so she became their source of shade. And probably sweat. Eww.

But broody hens usually have no trouble at all keeping chicks warm in the cold - even when it's wet or snowing!