coturnix can I move them to the freezing garage now?

[loves2hatch]

I have some quail that I hatched, they will be 8 weeks on Sunday. So they are fully feathered and the hens are laying eggs. They are in my basement right now in a room that is about 60 degrees. I want to move them to my garage, then in a couple weeks they will be moved to a shed with a run. Right not it's about 20 degrees in my garage 11 a.m. I'm not sure what it gets down to at night. I might add a heat lamp to keep the water from freezing esp at night Or should I just bring them water in the morning and put the heat lamp on it then? This last way they won't have 24 hours of light?
I want to get them ready for the shed with run they are going to in a couple of weeks. I'm not sure the best way to do this.
I'm not worried if they stop laying eggs, I just don't want to go out to dead birds.

Has anyone moved quail to the outdoors in the middle of winter that could help by giving me suggestions?

 

[TwoCrows]

You will need to acclimate them to the outdoor temps. The easiest way to do that is to use a heat lamp, infra red preferred so they can sleep at night (infra red allows for a natural sleep pattern but also adds some light) and keep it on 24/7 at first. You don't have to keep it really warm for them, but enough that they can find some heat as to not freeze to death. If the temp in the pen is 40 instead of 20, then they should adapt over time.

After about a week of this, you can omit the heat during the day and run it only at night. Then another week later, you should be able to remove it completely. But always keep an eye on them to see if you need to increase the amount of heat they receive and for how long.

 

[loves2hatch]

Thank you so much. . Maybe I'll try and tarp the cages somehow and keep the lamps placed over the water with some heat over part of the cages. Were supposed to hit the high 40F this weekend. So it might be a good time to move them out. Then it's back to the 20s & 30s.

Since I still have to slowly acclimate them it might just be easier to wait 2 more weeks when we move them to the shed w/run and keep a heat lamp for them to run to when they are cold. I will be warmer keeping the cages clean & collecting eggs for the next two weeks leaving them in my basement til then. I'll just keep the door closed to that room that seems to keep the smell contained. Since this part of the basement is not finished I don't have to worry about all the dust and smell going thru the vents of the house.

Either way I decide, Thank you. I now know I should still slowly acclimate them to the cold and how to go about.