Can these chicks move to the coop?

[OzarkEgghead]

I have 17 Easter Egger chicks that are 3 weeks old, are quickly outgrowing the brooder container I have indoors & generally making a smelly, dusty mess of my home. I'm attaching a picture the forecasted temps for the next 10 days....pretty much upper 90's during the day & mid-70's at night with high humidity but no forecasted rain. Can I safely put them in the coop with no supplemental heat source?

 

[DobieLover]

Supplemental heat?? You'll need a fan to help keep them from overheating! Seriously.

I'd move them out in the evening after it's starts to cool down so they can gradually acclimate to the rising temperatures the next day.
How large is your coop and run? Can you post pictures? I hope you have huge amounts of ventilation. Offer plenty of cool water for them to drink and deep shade.

 

[OzarkEgghead]

When I referred to supplemental heat, I was referring to nighttime when the temps dipped into the 70's. My coop is 12 ft x 16 ft x 7 ft high with 3 ft x 4 ft grated windows on each of 3 sides and a standard home entry door on the 4th side that can stand open 24 hrs/day for additional ventilation without fear of predator entry because of a secondary interior wall & entry that I covered with hardware cloth when I built the coop.

All of that said, I checked the updated forecast this morning & we now have an excessive heat warning from noon Sunday thru 10pm Thursday. I'm thinking I might be best to put up with the mess for an additional week & transfer them to the coop when the extreme temps break, the coop is a bit cooler & won't stress them so badly. I still welcome opinions on that plan though.

 

[mcdze]

i have mine outside in similar temps
.. i clip an old bed sheet around the pen at night to keep draft off of them, as long as theyre not thrown in with older hens there wont be any issues ...

 

[OzarkEgghead]

i have mine outside in similar temps
.. i clip an old bed sheet around the pen at night to keep draft off of them, as long as theyre not thrown in with older hens there wont be any issues ...

They're not going to be too stressed & too hot in "feels like" temps of 105 to 115?

 

[OzarkEgghead]

A quick update on my little ones. I wasn't going to move them to the coop last weekend because of the extreme temps forecasted for our area but decided to anyway & just watch them closely. We've been extremely humid & our "feels like" temps never dropped below a very muggy 75F & went as high as 122F that one day. Pretty much we've hovered around 113F during most days. I put a thermometer in the coop & the hottest it got was 102. I provided the chicks with a shallow "pool" where they could walk through & splash around to cool off if they wanted. I've also changed the water in the water feeder several times per day to keep it as cool for them as possible. The greatest success with moving them out there has been with a little scissor-beak who was struggling & failing to thrive indoors. The high heat & humidity must agree with her because she's not quite the size of her hatch-mates yet but she's caught up quite a bit & I've watched with great fascination how she's learning to adapt to her beak disability. I don't know if it will ultimately shorten her lifespan but she's a spunky one that's not going to give up without a fight so I'll do what I can to make eating & drinking with the scissor-beak as easy as possible for her.