Chicks outside!

[neener92]

I have 8 one week old chicks, 8 one week old guinea keets, and 4 three month old chicks that I plan on introducing to each other. The 4 older ones have been outside their whole life with their mommy, and I have just recently put them in a cage so I can feed them starter food and tame them down, as they have been free ranging with my not so tame hen named, Momma, cause this year she hatched 6 broods (weird I know!). I am wanting to take the one week old ones outside and put a light on all of them but I'm not sure if it is to cold outside or not (it gets about 40 degrees at night) but I was thinking with 4 older chicks and a heat lamp they would be ok. What do you all think?

 

[cmom]

Sounds good to me...

 

[Ridgerunner]

Sorry, I disagree with Cmom on this. Usually I don't. I think the 3 month old chicks would pick on and probably kill the one week olds. I would not integrate them at that age but would wait until the younger ones were closer in size to the grown ones. This link may help.

Buff Hooligan’s Adding to your flock
https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=2593-adding-to-your-flock

If you can provide them protection from the other chickens and a draft-free environment with appropriate heat levels, I am all favor of raising them in the coop and not in the house. I think it helps their immunity development and helps with integration issues later on. But I think trying to integrate them now is inviting disaster.

 

[neener92]

They are all outside, and they love it! Thank you!