Can they stay out, 48

[lisahaschickens]

Mine have been out in the coop since they were two weeks old. I have two brooder lights hung in there and they use them if they're cold... but they LOVE it out there and I'm so happy I put them out there early. We have had temps ranging from about 28 to 60 and they've been fine as long as they had the option of the lamp. They use it mostly for sleeping now, and only on cold nights. They are 4.5 weeks old now. so, I say go for it if you can provide them a spot with the right temperature for their age... which I believe it 70 degrees at five week (for yours), so not too bad.

 

[agirly4chicks]

Quote:
Just imagine 10. The poop is getting so huge and I have to change it every day to stop the smell. I don't have enough time with working 2 jobs.

 

[cmom]

Mine went out to the coop at 4 weeks. I did have a couple of brooder lamps out there with 250 watt red heat lamps. I also out a heat lamp on top of my chicken tractor under a milk crate on one end so they could get as close or far from the heat as they wanted. I put a tray in the tractor also with pine shavings that they could scratch around in and lay in out in my barn.

 

[Zahboo]

I put a 75 watt bulb out there since it got down to 45. This morning they were chirping up a storm for fresh food since they nocked down theirs.

 

[cmom]

At five weeks they aren't fully feathered. I kept my temperature around 70 degrees. I used a wireless thermometer to check the temp. My thermometer has an alarm on it so if it gets below the temp you set the alarm for the alarm will go off.

 

[Zahboo]

I made a mistake, they are 6 weeks. I am bringing them in tonight since it will be colder. They are eating up the warm weather today though.

 

[agirly4chicks]

Quote:
Can you say where you got the thermometer with the alarm on it?

 

[Zahboo]

Quote:
Can you say where you got the thermometer with the alarm on it?

I am interested also

 

[lisahaschickens]

I looked into the wireless thermometers with alarms and the problem for me is that they only have a range of 100 feet and my coop is further from my house than that. I looked and looked and finally found one that had a range of 3000 feet and it was a really nice one, but it was upwards of $400 before shipping... so I scrapped the idea and just stuck two brooder lamps out there, each on a separate circuit breaker, in case one went out. I also bought a power-outage alarm for $14.95 from Amazon, which goes off and wakes you up if the power goes out.

 

[lisahaschickens]

p.s. I don't remember where the 3000' one came from, but google temperature alarms for greenhouses. People who grow tropical plants really need exact temperatures and so that's the kind of place that carries them. Regular ones from places like Amazon only go 100 feet.