Hot cold can they get?

[Want2BFarmer]

Hello Everyone,

My Wife has loved our spring flock of cornish x rocks so much I got the go ahead for a fall Harvest. I live in PA so it starts to get cold in November. How cold can it get before it is bad for the chickens. I am hoping to start them by the beginning of September and butcher in the beginning of November? What do all of you suggest?

Can't wait to raise some chicks again...

 

[jaku]

You'll be fine- I have a weeklong training at the end of September that I can't get out of, so I am starting mine after that because I don't trust my wife with $1000 worth of chickens!

They do MUCH better in the cold than in the hot. You'll help them if you put a tarp over them at night and keep a heat lamp on them at night also, but you don't HAVE to. They can handle freezing temps after about three weeks if they're feathered out.

 

[Want2BFarmer]

how long do you keep them under the lamp. I'm used to watching over them when its freezing out but if its 65 at nite I think the chicks should be fine after a week or two

 

[mmwb]

I wouldn't worry about it. They will be gaining some mass and be feathered by the really cold weather. Many of us keep chickens, without secondary heat, though -30. If they are well fed, fully feathered, and large enough to have some real body mass, they should be fine.

 

[jaku]

I'd keep them indoors in the brooder until they're pretty well feathered out, but beyond that, it's not really an issue. I cover/heat my pen if it seems like it's going to be really cold.

 

[Junkmanme]

When I brought my "day-old chicks" home from the feedstore last Spring, our night temps were 40 F, more or a little less.

They had a heat lamp about 2 feet above them and they could move closer or further away (outside run about 100 square feet). They also had a tarp over part of the area so they could avoid getting wet.

All 16 did very well.

just what happened here..........

-Junkmanme-