I'm fairly new to raising chickens and always looking for advice from those with more experience. I live with my very patient husband, three teenage children, two dogs, two cats, a recent litter of 4 kittens, a cockatiel, and two beautiful bantam silkie hens, which reside at the school were I work. I began this little adventure last year thinking it would be a great experience for my students (30 ranging in age from 3-6) to raise a few chickens. Well, of the 8 bantam silkies we received 6 turned out to be roosters
but they did find a good home at a local petting zoo. We had so much fun and the hens are sooo cool that I thought we should take it a step further. So, this year I ordered standard breed chickens, because lets face it...the silkies are really more our classroom pets than purposeful egg layers. Please don't get me wrong we love them like crazy but they aren't huge egg producers.
So here's my problem
I didn't really take into account that these chickens would be so much bigger, louder and messier than the silkies and they are quickly outgrowing the space available in our classroom! They are 4 weeks old and feathering out nicely and I'd like to get them outside into the coop ASAP. However, this is Northern Michigan and there is still snow on the ground. How warm does it have to be before they can safely be put outside?
Melissa
So here's my problem
I didn't really take into account that these chickens would be so much bigger, louder and messier than the silkies and they are quickly outgrowing the space available in our classroom! They are 4 weeks old and feathering out nicely and I'd like to get them outside into the coop ASAP. However, this is Northern Michigan and there is still snow on the ground. How warm does it have to be before they can safely be put outside?Melissa
