Can I put my chicks out during the day?

[Mikokoke]

If you put your brooder outside (granted its predator proof) you will be getting them used to the environment and they will be more resilient chickens in the long run. This is the best part of the year to brood chickens outdoors. After the first week I put mine outdoors. I have 9 Rhode Island Red chicks and 9 Dominique chicks that are 2 weeks old and have been in an outdoor brooder with a heat lamp for a week. I have the lamp 36 inches above them and the space that they have to run is 3x5 and 36 inches tall. They are happy and healthy and they will self adjust to the temperature as long as you have enough room for them to get away from the lamp if they need to. Given plenty of room the chicks will go farther away from the lamp if they are too hot or closer to the lamp if they are too cold. Helps keep them from huddling so much. Good luck with your first chicks. I started this hobby for me and my children to have a few chickens and now we have 52. Its a fun hobby and very educational for all of us.


This is my outdoor brooder 3 weeks ago when my plymouth rock chicks were 3 weeks
WO

WOW! This a a great job and no smell in the house! Way to go!

 

[Harley0613]

I have 6 Golden Comets that are 4 weeks old and I put them outside 3 days ago and they are doing fine. A lot of feathers on them temps are into mid 50's at night in southern Kentucky. They go in the shelter filled with straw at night.

 

[Hayduke27]

This thread has been most helpful. I live in Colorado, and have 13 4+ week old chicks. I just moved them out into the coop, and have a heat lamp warming one corner for them. It will be in the low 30's at night for the next few nights. The coop is dry and draft free. I am thinking I will leave them in the coop from here on out, as the brooder is just getting smaller and smaller.

 

[DEBUS CHICKS]

I worried for nothing, I had the 4 younger ones that were 6 weeks old inside one night when it was cold and they cried for the older ones, put them out with the rest and they are happy and healthy even after the snow! At 6 weeks they are very hardy and in the small temp coop they were very warm. We are building a 8x10 coop with a 20 x 35 enclosure for all 16. Now we are starting the introduction of the 3 full grown chickens with the younger ones.....this has been the hardest thing to do and understand. Right now they are in a pen inside the larger chickens pen, two don't mind them one keeps bullying. We let them mingle for a short time each day. We are chicken people because of 4H and it has been a lot of fun, not cheap...but fun! There is a lot to learn and safety is the biggest fear, we love them all and we work really hard not to loose any.

 

[BScott03]

My chicks are one week old which I know is still very young! It is so hot during the day here in Oklahoma they can't stand to have the heat lamp on. Would it be okay to let the out in the coop during the day?

 

[Czechski]

I started keeping my two reds (5.5 and 7 weeks old) out in their tiny coop at night last Saturday night at 41 degrees. I already adjusted them to no heat lamp, and would carry them outside to play in a makeshift chicken-wire pen. They love their coop and just learned to roost a few days ago. NOW, I am grieving because someone STOLE the 7 week chick!! The other one is scared and by herself! We just got home from church and visiting a gravesite, and found one missing! HOW MEAN AND CRUEL!

Is it possible someone will sell me a 4-7 week Red chicken to be with my little Hero? In South Central PA.

 

[BScott03]

So, with my first round of chicks, I put them out when it warmed up.... I ended up losing just about all of them (thinking it was a bad batch) now it's in the 80's and 90's consistently and my babies (a week old now) are dying to go out. Every time I check on them, someone has escaped! Any suggestions on what to do?

 

[doobs]

I have four five week old bantam Cochins out in the run running around like crazy kids and its currently 48 outside now but i do bring them in at night as 28 was the low brrrrrrr

 

[Stewarts]

Our coop is in front of the hutch


This is how I let our birds out, by opening the flap to let the sun {when it shines} into the hutch. The coop is insulated and enclosed with a door into the hutch and the hutch is more for outdoors but completely closed in against the snow, wind, rain and other elements that could cause problems with my birds.

To let birds outdoors at any time, they need to be fully feathered! If they are not, they could sicken and die. I never let my birds out in wet or snowy conditions for fear of frostbite.

Black crown on roo is dead, frostbitten tissue that has to be cut off to prevent the frostbite from reaching his head.

Frostbitten feet...

These toes have to be cut off due to severe frostbite. How is this chicken going to walk?

Never put your birds, at any age, in the snow or wet conditions. The hutch I have above is well enclosed so no wind, rain or snow can get in. Even though its tarped and not insulated against cold, I have a thick layer of straw on the hutch floor that is kept dry. While the coop is insulated, strawed and has a bulb for light and a little heat.

 

[kwhit]

Wow! That is quite an eye opener! My six layers will be a year old in March.
As long as your birds are kept out of wind/draft and kept dry they seem to do okay in the cold.
Here in Mass. we've been very cold the few days and nights (night lows near single numbers).
There was a day or two that temps were 9-15 degrees with wind.
I do still worry about frostbite. My hens go under their coop and I have a few wind blocks in their pen
to help.
I saw a post suggesting to apply vasoline to the combs of birds
like Rhode Island Reds and others that have large combs....