Don't be scared of the cold - 6 weeks old doing fine in upper 20s!

[Magnolia76]

I am still very new to raising chickens and for me personally I would scour the forums looking for advice on cold weather and can my chicks handle it. Well, as it turns out my chicks can handle a lot more than google articles leads one to believe! I wanted to just update everyone on what my own experience has been in case it helps to ease your mind! I kept mine in the shower stall in my house where it never got below 68 degrees. At 2 weeks old I went against advice by 5 degrees on how warm the warmest spot should be so when it was recommended to be at 85 I had it about 80, so just a slight difference. 4 weeks I removed the heat lamp altogether as they were acting just fine. They already were getting up on roosts in the brooder to sleep. At 5.5 weeks I felt worried because I hadn't been able to expose them to cool temps yet and they had never even been outside (no good place to let them go explore safely yet) I put them in their coop at 5.5 weeks. The weather seemed appropriate with the low in the 50s. Well South Dakota weather is unpredictable. They experienced crazy wind, rain, a hot day, and this weekend its getting into the upper 20's with highs in the 40s. They only turned 6 weeks 3 days ago! I am wanting strong birds and I do not want to use heat sources. They are doing JUST FINE! I had put a huddle box in the coop, they dont use it. They sleep in a row on the roosting bar, their bodies feel warm the the touch. The coop is not insulated, but I did make sure there are no drafts down low. Its just a thin OSB board coop with some venting up top. They are having no trouble at all. Just being outside in the elements for a few days caused them to feather out even more and get fluffier. So, do not worry... they can handle more than you think! They are not acting miserable or staying huddled together, I can tell they could handle cooler than this at their age.

 

[SueT]

Thanks for sharing this! Chicks are a lot tougher than most people give them credit for. I’ve seen a mama hen take her 2 day old chicks outside on a chilly drizzly morning and was amazed at the amount of time they spent NOT under her, with temps in the 40’s. It totally changed the way I looked at brooding chicks.

 

[Asteen89]

I completely agree with this. I’ve been raising chickens since I was a kid and broodies always take their babies out in the cold. They wander around for quite some time before needing to reheat under her. My broodie in March thought her 3-4 week olds were old enough to be without a mom anymore. They huddled on cold nights. It was below 20 for a few nights and they were fine. Weather during the day was chilly 40’s and 50’s.