Moving Chicks to Coup?

[TrentD]

What do you think about the idea of moving 3 week old chicks to the coup with the chicken door fixed closed and a 100 watt incandescent white light hanging. Not a heat lamp. the coup is 6 x 6. Right now my brooder pen is in a spare room and the dust is unbearable. The night time temps get down to 4 deg with an after noon temp of 10 deg outside. I am going to use a layer of kiln dried sawdust to help insulate the floor (not cedar). Is it to early to put them outside? i have read a lot of mixed reviews and just wanted to ask a pro. The chicks were born on the 1st of March.

 

[CascadiaRiver]

I personally do NOT put chicks out until they are a few months old or are fully feathered, the chicks you have at 3 weeks should be kept at about 85 degrees, so if you can keep it at that in your coop then I suppose you'd be fine.

 

[Pork Pie]

Here's a link that might give you another angle on things...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/956958/mama-heating-pad-in-the-brooder-picture-heavy-update

All the best
CT

 

[FarmerMac]

A 100W bulb may not be enough to provide heat where the chicks can go under if the temps is that cold. When I move my little ones outside, they go into a 4Wx6LX2H partition of the main coop, all sides are protected against wind drafts and I use a 250W heat emitter, (does not produce light just heat) they nest under the element and if they get too hot, they can move about. You don't want to find your chicks frozen in the AM because they did not have enough heat. I don't think at 3 weeks they are fully feathered, are they? You may want to use a heat lamp about one or two feet off the ground or the roosting bar if you have one.

 

[RobertPlamondon]

What do you think about the idea of moving 3 week old chicks to the coup with the chicken door fixed closed and a 100 watt incandescent white light hanging. Not a heat lamp. the coup is 6 x 6. Right now my brooder pen is in a spare room and the dust is unbearable. The night time temps get down to 4 deg with an after noon temp of 10 deg outside. I am going to use a layer of kiln dried sawdust to help insulate the floor (not cedar). Is it to early to put them outside? i have read a lot of mixed reviews and just wanted to ask a pro. The chicks were born on the 1st of March.

I agree about brooding indoors quickly becoming a nuisance! ! My tolerance for baby chicks inside the house runs out when they're about three days old.

Keep in mind that putting baby chicks in a chicken coop means that they're not outdoors, they're housed! Ours do beautifully in an uninsulated, unheated, well-ventilated shed with the brooder lamps heating only a small area.

I don't know how many chicks you're talking about, but in the absence of powerful floor drafts, I'd assume that 100 watts will be enough to warm as many three-week chicks as it's sensible to put into a 6x6 foot house (a 6x6 meter house would be another story). Though if you're not using a hover, I'd recommend a floodlight bulb or heat lamp rather than an ordinary bulb, placed high enough to warm an area that all the chicks fit in with room to spare.

Robert

 

[msquill]

I'm looking at a similar question. I want to move my chicks outside also. I've had my chicks about 2 weeks, and the ducklings 1 week. They are getting too big for the brooder they are in, and seem much happier outside in the chicken pen. I've been putting them outside almost every morning and letting them "be chickens" in the pen all day. I bring them back inside, into the brooder at night. But, the brooder just seems so small, and they are so much happier outside. I'm looking at options for providing heat in the coop. I have a heat lamp, and I found a chicken heating pad at TSC last week, and bought that. Now, I'm trying to decide which is safer in my wooden chicken coop.

Sorry, I don't have an answer for you about your heat source. There is a thread on here about using a heating pad to create a heated 'cave" for chicks that seems like it would work for colder climates. I'm in the South so dealing with cold temps isn't such a concern for me. I do think that if they have enough heat, they'll be fine outside, but this is my first flock.

 

[dragonmomma]

I had a similar decision to make my babies will be 4 weeks Monday they are mostly feathered in now. I have 1/3 of a barn stall sectioned off into a brooder pen from last years batch I am in maine I put them out there last night while thing is surrounded by 3 high feet of cardboard including the door I hung my heat lamp about 18 inches from the ground and they seem to be doing well they run and flap and eat then once chilled go back under the heat lamp it was 18 last night and a balmy 30 out today. Not as cold as where you are. I am still nervous,but they outgrew their box! Best of luck. I am going to go sit with them and put them under my wing (coat) soon to cuddle.

 

[gahorseygal]

I'm not a pro - we are currently raising our first chicks. But we just moved our big guys, about 4 weeks old, out to the chicken coop. They have a house (cardboard box with hole cutout for a door) and a 250watt heatlamp. They can go in the house to be fully out of the wind if need be but most of the time they hang our around the heat lamp right infront of the house. I had read at 3 weeks that chicks are able to start regulating their temperature themselves and also read a thread on here where a guy was brooding his chicks outside in really cold weather. The coldest it has been was 30 degrees and the chicks were very comfortable with their heat lamp and house. When I go out there they will run around the coop and explore more.

We have some younger chicks that are almost 3 weeks so they will move outside in the next two weeks.

 

[dragonmomma]

I will note they are mostly darker colored so probably absorb heat better than a light colored bird.

 

[mrv19]

My 16 day old buff orps (4 of them) are tolerating 70-75 degree indoor temps now. I turn lamp iff during day indoors and on at night. I believe the "standard" formula for temps is a bit high after the 1st week. And i disagree that they need 85 degrees at 3 weekz old.

That said.. Temps outside right now are 50s daytime and approx 40s nights. I plan to put them out in about a week when coop is done, with heat in the coop.

Not sure yet which bulb will provide 70 degree warmth but i will be testing it out before they go to be surw. My theory is as long as u can provide the warmth they need by supplementing..what difference does it make if its indoors or out