First campout tonight!

[welovechickens]

My babies are spending their first night outside in the coop tonight! They weren't too happy with me at first, but they finally calmed down.

We put up a windbreak with a doorway to the enclosed section of the coop, and added a 100-watt bulb in a fixture.

The temp was 85 earlier, but has been slowly dropping. I am a bit worried it won't stay warm enough for them overnight. (Supposed to get down in the lower 60's) So I cleaned their indoor cages and got them all ready in here, just in case.

Only reason we were going to try the campout tonight was that we get up at 6:30am to get ready for choir practice before church on Sundays. It's all we can do to get ourselves ready and out the door by 7:45am, so we figured if they could stay outside, we wouldn't have to take the extra time to move them.

(Of course I would give fresh food and water before we left.)

So we'll see what happens!

For those of you who keep your chickens outdoors, when did you start having the chicks do overnights outdoors? Mine are just over 2 weeks old, so they still need a steady 85 degrees.

 

[#1California Chick]

Where do you live?? Obviously at 2 weeks, they don't have feathers yet!! What temp have you been keeping them at in the house?? You probably don't want to have your outside coop be more that five degrees cooler (at the coldest part of the night).

Good Luck!!

 

[welovechickens]

I'm in TX. It's supposed to be 61 tonight in my area. We put in a 150-watt bulb and it's staying around 86 in the protected part of the coop. (I put my trusty digital thermometer out there with them!)

All my chicks except 1 have lots of feathers! I don't remember any of my other chick groups getting feathers this early, but it's been awhile since I had my last bunch.

They are acting fine, not huddled together, so I am assuming they will be ok.....we are checking every half-hour or so until we go to bed, then I will be up at 6:30am. If it's too chilly, I will bring them inside.

 

[welovechickens]

Oh, and to answer your other question, we have been keeping them around 85 degrees inside, since we go down 5 degrees for each week of age.