Can I put my chicks out now?

[Faisonfarm]

I have 4 fully featured chicks that are 4 weeks old. 2 cream legbars & 2 olive eggers. They're currently in my garage with a heat source but I want them out lol. I've got 8, 13 week old pullets in the coop already. Our lows where we live are 68-70 at night and it's about 80-85 during the day. Can I put them out now without an additional heat source?

 

[thecatumbrella]

Are they still using the heat source at night? Mine don't wean themselves off until about 5 weeks. You could start the integration process now (which would reduce the amount of dust in your garage) and only bring them in at night. By the time they're ready to mingle full-time with the older pullets, they'll be off the heat.

 

[kattabelly]

They'll be fine if they're fully feathered. If they're still using the heat source it's probably more out of habit than anything. You could always give them one night indoors without additional heat before putting them out if you're worried, or give them a give them a cardboard box to snuggle in while they're still doing the sleep heap thing and not roosting. 68F would be an unusually high daytime temperature here and I put chicks out younger than that!

Will they have their own space outside, or have you planned how to integrate them with the older pullets?