How cold can a quail chick survive?

Yep, all the studies I read keep heat on until about week 4. I do wonder if I'm sacrificing size or some other characteristic in exchange for early feathering.
The quicker they feather, the 'hardier' they will be....reducing the amount of heat greatly intensifies feather generation.
It's a double edged sword...keeping temps at bare minimum an at the same time trying to keep them from getting chilled. If the temps are kept high, it will take longer for them to 'feather out'.
 
Yep, all the studies I read keep heat on until about week 4. I do wonder if I'm sacrificing size or some other characteristic in exchange for early feathering.
The quicker they feather, the 'hardier' they will be....reducing the amount of heat greatly intensifies feather generation.
It's a double edged sword...keeping temps at bare minimum an at the same time trying to keep them from getting chilled. If the temps are kept high, it will take longer for them to 'feather out'.
I think some other factors are the brooder size and material, and how many chicks are in it. I usually have heat completely gone by 2 weeks, and by 3 they have feathered most of the way except the heads, but I use plastic bins with hardware cloth in half the lid as brooders. The translucent plastic warms up inside a bit from the sun shining thru the windows at it, and because half the top is solid, heat rises and doesn’t escape from it as much as a full hardware cloth lid. Because I sell a lot, there are generally a ton of chicks in there generating heat. If someone has just a few chicks in a wire cage or something more ventilated, they would probably need heat longer. The temp in my house ranges from 65-75 depending on weather and time of year, but 2 weeks is when they’re all choosing to sleep on the far side without heat, so that’s when I shut it down.
 

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