I am new to raising a Cornish cross. I’m actually new to chickens.

[Rickmcmichael]

My Cornish cross chicks will be three weeks tomorrow on Tuesday. I’ve got them in a 3 feet wide by 8 feet long horse tank it’s working pretty well but I am more than ready to move them outside. I live in the Oklahoma panhandle and it still gets in the 30s at night. Did make a chicken tractor half is covered with metal and I have a couple heat lamps hanging in the Ready. Should it be OK to put them in there later this week? This is my first run of chickens. There are 32 of them.

 

[NatJ]

General points for putting chicks outdoors:

--they need to be safe from predators
--they need shelter from bad weather (wind, rain, etc)
--young chicks need access to a warm place (like under a heat lamp), but it is fine for them to wander into cool places as well, as long as they can easily go back to the warm place when they want to.

Based on what you say, I think your Cornish Cross chicks will probably be fine in your tractor with the heat lamp, as long as they don't have a cold wind blowing in from the open part of the tractor. You can probably tell that by watching for a bit, to see if they are shivering and huddling.

This is probably obvious, but do put the tractor in a place where the ground is dry, not muddy.