Is 48 degrees to cold?... first night out

[Henrybelle]

My 7 chicks are 7weeks old and I just finished the coop today so they will be spending their first night outside. But I’m still concerned they might be too cold the temp tonight is 48-49 degrees. When they go out in the mornings ( from the brooder) it’s around 50s so they are familiar with the temp. They are fully feathered minus a few clingy down tufts that give one or two a funny hairdo. anyway any thoughts are helpful. Thanks!

 

[Quackers3211]

I would still give them a heat lamp if possible or another heat source. But if you say yours are used to 50 degree weather I don’t think a couple more degrees would kill em. I’ve heard stories of people keeping their chickens out in 15 degree weather and then being just fine. Mine have been ouside at night in 50 something at night. Whatever you choose to do I would always research but I’m sure that they would be fine.

 

[Quackers3211]

I would just leave them. Don’t use a heat lamp. I was reading some more into using one and it seems a lot of people say that they start fires and that chickens are very flammable. Sorry, didn’t know about that till now.

 

[aligarysmom]

So the countdown from birth is 5 degrees per week. Starting at 100. General rule of thumb. So they are at 65 so I would bring out a heat source for them. IMO

 

[Henrybelle]

Mine have never followed that rule staying away from the heat but they had a smaller brooder also I think they have acclimated a little better from all the frequent field trips outside. They go out around 7:30 or 8 and it’s around 50 then usually in around 6 temps during the day range from 50s to 70s. And I agree that putting the lamp outside when I’m not around is a bad idea I’ve heard stories about fires too and it’s the only heat source I would have available. Thanks for the advice!

 

[Cayuga momma]

If they are use to 50°F temps then they should be just fine out there at night.

 

[Henrybelle]

Well they’re alive and well! Successful critter proof coop and just a couple stink eye glances from the girls lol. They’ll be thanking me when the 90 degree weather rolls around. thanks y’all!

 

[aligarysmom]

Oh sorry if there was some confusion. Did I think it would kill them? Absolutely not! There is a big difference from sleeping standing still and walking around when the sun is out. I’m sure they would survive. And be cold tolerant quicker to boot. Possibly getting chilled could cause some immune problems.

Good luck!

 

[Blooie]

Glad they did so well. And you have learned a lesson that a broody hen knows well - chicks aren't as fragile as we are led to believe by all the books, charts, and experts. By now they wouldn't all fit under a broody hen anyway and they'd be mostly doing their own thing while she goes about her business and does hers.

I put my first chicks - heat lamp raised indoors - outside on April 1, 2014. They were 5.5 weeks old and there were 22 of them. It was either them or me, and I wasn't going anywhere! I put a heat lamp out there for them, and a wireless thermometer transmitter. Wouldn't you know? That night our temps plummeted down, down, down.....25, 20, 18.....and all night long I was jumping out of my warm bed and running out to check on them. Every time I dd, I saw a cuddle of beaks, feets, and feathers, curled up contentedly in front of the pop door - nowhere near the heat lamp. I fully expected to go out there in the morning and find chick-cicles. Nope, they were fine, ready to get out and explore. Second night, same story. So the third day I took out the heat lamp. If they weren't going to use it I wasn't risking a fire and wasting the electricity. That night it snowed. Hard. With high winds. Yeah. They were just fine. Spring "chick season" here in northwestern Wyoming is still cold. We got our last snowfall that year on June 6th.

The point is that if I'd followed the charts and experts and waiting until they said it was "safe" to put them out, I'd have had 22 seventeen week old chickens in my house. Ida laid her first egg at 16 weeks, so I'd have been stuck with them in here until there were eggs in the brooder. NOT happening. I knew there had to be a better way, and watching a broody hen with her chicks was the key. She doesn't warm their entire brooder....she's just there, and when they need a little warmth or get spooked they duck under her for a bit, then pop back out raring to go. She doesn't have night lights under her wings, doesn't care if they eat dirt, chicken poop, bug or weeds, isn't chopping up their treats for them and lets them drink out of mud puddles. There might be a little snow on the ground and they run into it, testing it to see if it's edible. Why do we do it so differently and think we're doing it better?

Now I skip all that fol-de-rol. I won't have a heat lamp within a hundred miles of my chicks, ever. I don't have all the angst about putting them out for the first night after weeks of indoor pampering. I have full integration with the rest of the flock and the brooder taken out completely by 4 weeks old. They don't have to adjust to darkness at night. They don't eat, cheep or peck at each other 24/7. They aren't bored, and they learn to be chickens. Because they hit the ground at a time when they still have some immunities from mom, and are then exposed to the ground they'll be living on for the rest of their lives, they build up their natural immunities the way they are designed to - slowly and steadily. I bring them home (or take them out of the incubator) and keep them in a dog crate in the house with Mama Heating Pad for a day or so. I want to be sure they aren't suffering any hatching or shipping stress, that they know where to duck in to get warm, and that they are eating and drinking. Then out they go, Mama Heating Pad and all. Yep, 2-3 day old chicks outside in a wire brooder pen in the run with all the adults and nothing but a heating pad cave, with temps in the teens and twenties, and natural day-night cycles. <gasp>

Know what I end up with? Strong, healthy chicks that are calm, confident, already know their place in the pecking order, know how to see to their needs, and don't have me hovering over them all the time making them nervous. They make their own comfort decisions. They decide when they are ready to start roosting, and do it very well without the trauma of me grabbing them night after night and putting them up there because some book says I should. When I go out there they aren't looking at me with suspicion, wondering what I'm going to make them do. Works for me. Every batch. Every time. Next time you have chicks, you'll be more confident if you just remember that they don't need us as much as we need us to think they need us. Yep, that sentence makes little sense...until it's broken down. Good luck with your new chickens! Because from the moment they went outside and started experiencing life outside the brooder, they became beautiful chickens and not "baby chicks" anymore.

 

[aligarysmom]

I wasn’t suggesting they need to be inside. You still provided warmth. Nothing wrong with being outdoors.