late season hatch and free range chickens

dauvau

Hatching
10 Years
Oct 5, 2009
4
0
7
Hello to all,
I'm new so please bear with me.
This is the first year we are hatching.
We started hatching guinea eggs in April from our guineas.
We bought chicks this spring, and a few pullets.
When the pullets started laying 2 Buff Orpingtons went broody right away. Of, course in the yard-flower garden. when we moved the nest to the coop they stopped sitting.
So now we have chicks 2 weeks old in east central Iowa and frost this morning.
How old do the chicks have to be before we could consider starting to get them outside?
 
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They will need to have all their feathers and a heat lamp would be nice if you could do that.
 
Given access to a warm dry place with a heat lamp, I have been known to let mine head out around four weeks. If they can get back under a warm spot they seem to do all right.

That said - sudden cold wet storms can catch them unguarded and that is dangerous. Most people keep them up til they're feathered out.

Mine feather out between 6-7 weeks if they're fed game starter - 22%. I find the extra cost worth the extra growth and fast feather.
 

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