I got these chicks about 3 days ago at TSC. The gentleman there could only tell me they were day old red pullets, had 3 possible breeds on the sign. He was nice enough to check them to make sure they were all females. No comment on that one. Question one being as I have had them 3 days and looking at their wing feathers how old do you think they really are? That brings us to question 2. How old should they be before going into a chicken coop/run with them as sole occupants? I do live in Texas and we are having an unusally warm winter here. It's been getting into the mid 70's in the day and dropping into the mid 40's at night.
i live in north central Texas (happy Texas independence day by the way). i moved my chicks into the coop (sole occupants) at three weeks. they were starting to pick at each other & i felt i needed to move them asap. i've kept two lights for them & a couple of nights i've used one because it was so warm. things have worked out beautifully so far (fingers crossed). they have been in there a week now. i let them outside into a little corral thing for about 30 min twice a day (i stay there). i don't have a roof over my run. good luck with your babies.
I would say they are about a week, my last hatch looks to have the exact same feathering, if its below 80 degrees at night I would keep them in till they have there adult feathers at about 1 month of age. If they huddle together they are cold
I live in Austin, and I put my older chicks out in a pretty open pen , with their 250 watt heat lamp for a warm spot if they want it. They have been there for two weeks now (they were 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 weeks old when they went out) and there have been days they never want the lamp, though they will sleep under it "sometimes" at night. They have never seemed uncomfortable nor have they fallen over dead. The weather has been nice enough that I figured as long as they have the choice to lay under the heat lamp, they'll be fine. Right now, they are having a ball out there, dust bathing (and purring!!) scratching, jumping around like they've had too much sugar... being kids.
