heat lamp and light at night

[saildog]

Chicks are 2 weeks old: I just moved them to the large new coop and I have the heat lamp in there.

During the day it is 80 - 85 degrees without any extra heat and at night it is getting down to about 70.

Should I leave the heat lamp for light at night? It is a large coop 12 by 12 so they have plenty of space to get away from the heat lamp, but do they need or want the light on at night that it provides and if so until what age?

I was not going to let them into the protected fenced in run til they were 4 weeks old does that sound right ?

 

[sumi]

That sounds right. They will need the extra heat at night until they are fully feathered, at around 6 weeks.

 

[RonC]

You are correct in that they need no extra heat during the day with the temps you are having. As to whether they need one at night is going to draw much discussion. In my opinion I would offer the light at one end of the brooder just to be sure they are ok. It won't need to be a lot of additional heat, only about 80-85 degrees. They would probably be ok simply huddling together for warmth without the light. Mine stopped sleeping near the light voluntarily at 3 weeks and prefered huddling together at the far end of the brooder.

Mama hen would have them outside with her in less than a week after hatching. I would supervise unless you have a predator proof area for them and sitting with them nearby will help them become less afraid of you. If they have access to dirt then they shouldn't need additional grit but you might want to offer chick grit to them when they start going out and eating other things than their starter.

I don't have other chickens but at 4 weeks mine moved outside permanently. Temps were in the 70's in the day and dropping to mid 50's at night.