how old do my chicks have to be before i can put them outside?

[monita]

i have chicks that were hatched 10/20 and they are currently residing in my garden tub. i clean it every day and even let them outside to play for a few hours when it is nice. but i have 6- 1 week old chicks and 22 eggs due to hatch on thanksgiving. i am afraid my tub is gonna be overloaded...lol. how old do the chicks have to be before i can put them outside? thats considering this cool weather too?

 

[Happy Chooks]

I don't know, but I've been wondering the same thing. Mine hatched 10/23. I know they are not ready now, as they are still growing feathers in and they have bare spots here and there. But the cockerals are outgrowing my dog crate.

I have their temp in the brooder down to 75-80 degrees and they are doing fine. I'd like to start turning off the light during the day and come back on at night, but I don't know when's the right time to do that. (they are in an insulated shed, so heat stays in pretty well)

 

[gritsar]

They can go outside at any time you can maintain the temp. in the coop to the level needed based on their age. At four weeks old, that would 75 to 80 degrees, perhaps a little cooler.
If I lived in sunny California (like new2chooks) my chicks would be spending every warm, non-breezy day outside and only going under their heat lamp at night; assuming it was chilly enough for their heat lamp at night even.
I raised my chooks outside. They started out in their brooder in a draft free shed for the first week or so, but by week two the shed was too warm during the day, since I couldn't leave the doors open to predators.
At two weeks they were living in their brooder, with their heat lamp and a draft guard on our screened porch. By four weeks they were without a heatlamp during the day; by 5 and a half weeks they were without it full time.
I started taking them outside on nice days at two weeks. They loved running around and it prepared them well for their future.
This is just an account of my experience and it worked so well for me, it's how I will always brood chicks.

 

[Happy Chooks]

LOL, not so sunny today. It's cold and windy and rainy. Where we live is in the mountains and we get snow fairly often through the winter. (although it doesn't compare with the snow you guys on the other side of the country get....Brrrrrr)

Now if I lived in San Diego, they'd be out in the coop already.

 

[mom2jedi]

Quote:
I'm in San Diego... and it was warm today! However, as soon as the sun starts to "think" about setting around 3:30 or so, the temp dips dramatically. It's been down under 50 degrees the last few nights. I wonder about putting my babies in their new coop already before they are completely feathered out but we have a heater in there and there are six bigger chicks that hopefully will let the little ones snuggle up soon. I suppose it helps that there are 14 of them all the same age!