Chicks first night in the coop!

[sophiesflock]

Its the first night in the coop for my 8.5 week old chicks! They've been off the heat lamp for about 2 weeks and its about 5 degrees celcius outside (I live in Canada). Will they be ok? They wont stop squaking!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

They are probably confused and scared about where they are, they should settle and get used to it after a few days, sometimes a nightlight can help, or even running a high hanging heat lamp with a low watt bulb for a couple of weeks.

 

[azygous]

Try to imagine how it is to be a chick and to deal with the sudden change from a warm, confining brooder to a much larger, strange space.

It's in chicken DNA to react to any change at all by believing it's the end of the world as they understand it. Time to adjust is usually all it requires for them to reconsider this belief.

When moving chicks into the coop I like to include something from their brooder space to ease the transition. In my case, it was their heating pad and frame, even though they no longer needed it for warmth. Allowing them to sleep under it for their first couple nights in the coop helped tremendously, I believe.