Highs 60 Lows 45, When to move 5 week old chicks outside to the coop?

[jokerone]

~~We have 6 chicks born 2/27. They are in the same big tub inside we had them in since they were 3 days old. Now they really big, have feathers, and outgrowing the tub. We have been putting them in the coop during the day on warm days here in southern Illinois, but have not left them outside in the coop at night because we felt it was too cold. We quit using the heat lamp a few weeks ago because its 74 in our house and they have feathers now. So, when will it be warm enough or they will be old enough to go outside permanently?

thanks!

 

[Judy]

It sounds like you have done a good job of acclimating them to the outdoors, and they are ready now. Maybe a good layer of hay or pine shavings on the floor of the coop will reassure you that they can snuggle to get warm if needed. I'd be very surrised if they had a problem.

 

[Odelia]

How feathered are they? Usually the answer is 6-8 weeks of age. What they need is to be fully feathered so that they can regulate their own temperature. How do they act when they are outside during the day and it is cloudy and a little windy? Do they still run around and play or do they all huddle together? If they are huddling then I would wait another week. Hope that helps.

 

[jokerone]

How feathered are they? Usually the answer is 6-8 weeks of age. What they need is to be fully feathered so that they can regulate their own temperature. How do they act when they are outside during the day and it is cloudy and a little windy? Do they still run around and play or do they all huddle together? If they are huddling then I would wait another week. Hope that helps.

they seem to run around try flying, and a lot of scratching on the ground. They do want to stick together, but it seems more of a "pack" thing than huddled close to stay warm.

If it were May, they would already be outside because it would be as warm as our house.

thanks!

 

[jokerone]

they seem to have a lot of feathers, but I don't know anything about chickens, this is our first batch.

 

[jokerone]

It sounds like you have done a good job of acclimating them to the outdoors, and they are ready now. Maybe a good layer of hay or pine shavings on the floor of the coop will reassure you that they can snuggle to get warm if needed. I'd be very surrised if they had a problem.

thanks. We have pine shavings on the bottom of the tub and I put a lot of them in the upstairs of the coop where they will roost and lay. the bottom is a yard where they can run around and scratch. its on wheels so I can move it from time to time as well.

suppose to be cold tonight, so I'll wait until the weekend when the temps are going to be back to the range in the title of this thread.

thanks.

 

[Whovian]

I am wondering the same. It was later in the Spring last year when we got our first chickens. I have 3 Black Copper Maran chicks that are just over 6 weeks old. They are really getting too big for the brooder, but I'm concerned that 40-45 degrees at night is too cold for them. There is no light in the coop at night. They would be in a small coop by themselves until they are big enough to join the flock.

 

[jokerone]

I am wondering the same. It was later in the Spring last year when we got our first chickens. I have 3 Black Copper Maran chicks that are just over 6 weeks old. They are really getting too big for the brooder, but I'm concerned that 40-45 degrees at night is too cold for them. There is no light in the coop at night. They would be in a small coop by themselves until they are big enough to join the flock.

Yesterday we moved them out into the coop permanently. I hooked up a heat lamp for them in the roost. I got up about daybreak this morning to see how they were doing. None of the chickens were out of the roost. So I unplugged the lamp and within about 2 minutes they started coming down one by one until after 5 minutes all 6 were on the ground eating..

It is suppose to get rather cold tonight (low of 35F) so the lamp will stay on for sure.

 

[acooke]

Based on reading all these posts last night, we decided it was time to move our 6 chickens outside permanently. They are 5 weeks old. The bad weather we had in the last 2 weeks has passed. It will be 80

° all week, down to 50° at night. They did great.

 

[bustedchicks]

Mine are about that age and are doing well outside. If they get too cold or tired they'll just run back into the coop. Heat lamp still on at night but am reducing each night the amount of hours it's on via timer