Moving 8 week old chick outside- Good idea?

[Hufflefluff]

We've been raising Callie, a Dark Brahma chick, by herself inside for the past few weeks. When she was five weeks, we got her a friend- a day-old chick named Ami. Callie and Ami are good friends, although as our brooder is fairly small Callie is always relieved when we take her out, and flaps around and pecks Ami. We've been taking Callie outside whenever we can since she was about a week old, and she is now fully feathered and largely unbothered by colder temperatures.
As she is eight weeks now, we'd really like to mover her outside. She always seems cramped in the brooder, and we don't have the room to expand it. She has met our six hens on all of her outside forays, and they've also had the chance to see and interact with her, albeit through bars. We live in CO, and night temperatures are going down to 40, although the days are much warmer and there is no snow or rain.
Can we mover her outside by herself at this point? The plan is to put her in a padded dog crate for a while at first at night and in the mornings, so the hens can't peck her and the blankets will help keep her warm. We's probably try to find a way to keep her in an outdoor pen throughout the day, so she doesn't get lost.
Is she too young? Should we wait four weeks until her friend can go out with her? Will she be warm enough, even if it drops to around 40?
Any ideas/ advice is very much appreciated

 

[chickslaugh]

I would think at this point 8 weeks is a good age to put her outside. Almost every chicken at 2 months would be able to go outside. Especially this breed because their cold hardy (I think is the term for it) they do well in colder temperatures. I like your idea for the padded dog crate, that way the older hens can get used to the younger chickens presence. I hoped this helped in some way.

 

[mrv19]

My almost 5 week old chicks are outside (4 buff orps) they play in the run mosy of the day at 40something degrees and at night i turn on the heatlamp. All is well...8 weeks old you are totally fine