heat ?

[cristina33]

My chicks will be 8 weeks on friday, they have one of those red heat lights they are in the basement which is little chilli when should i take the light away??? There brooder is floorless they are on wire because they poop like mad !!! Never seen so much poo in my life LOL. I am in Ma and we are still cold this weekend we will be in the single digits. I would really like to move them out soon and not even really sure when to do that. Any advise is welcome.

Cristina

 

[Uzuri]

What's you're basement temperature?

General rule of thumb is to subtract 5 degrees each week -- so by week 8, you're talking 55 degrees being OK (and in practice, somewhat cooler than that isn't going to faze them, though single digits would likely be a shock to the system). I hope your basement's warmer than that XD

You can also move them outside with the lamp -- just be very, very careful to secure it properly since you don't want a coop fire.

 

[sherrydeanne]

I'm in Mass too, and wouldn't put out 8 weekers without a light. If the coop is draft free and you can run a heatlamp to the coop, plug it in and see how warm it is first thing in the morning. If you only have a few chicks, I'd do a heatlamp in teh coop during the day and bring them in at night for at least a few more weeks.