How long do I wait until I let my chicks out into a fenced area in the yard? I have 2 Welsummer roos who are 8 weeks old now. They are getting fairly large and are fully feathered (it looks like anyway). Will they be OK in a small fenced area on the grass in 65-70 degree weather?? I keep a heat lamp in the corner of the brooder at all times (it's in the shed) but can they do without it now? I think it will be good for them to spend some time outside around the rest of the flock but enclosed to protect them. Thoughts? Suggestions? Thanks, Shane
yup,, they can be out now,,,,, i let my chicks in the yard at a month old, with no light at all,, and have NEVER lost 1 due to cold,, and i go through hundreds of birds every other month.
Oh goodness. My chickens were going outside with supervision on nice days from the time they were two weeks old. It took a few weeks before they learned to come to the door to be put back in the brooder in the evenings. Before that it was kinda exhausting to round them all up. I would start weaning them off that heat lamp.
When my last batch of babies hit 6 weeks the lamp went off (they were inside and the temps never got lower than 60 in that room). Now I've moved them outside I put the heat lamp on in one corner at night, and will for a bit longer (OK, so they're silkies and frizzled cochins, I'll probably use a heat lamp all winter, they aren't exactly cold hardy-but any other breed and and I would only bother down in the the really cold nights.) If you are dropping 5 degrees a week by six weeks they are already comfortable in 65 degree weather, anyway.
