Moving outside at 6 weeks?

[Hodawg]

Howdy gang!

I need some advice, as our five 6-week old Plymouth Barred Rocks are now starting to outgrow their secondary brooder.

This past weekend was very nice, lows in the upper 50's and highs in the upper 70's. So Mrs. Hodawg and I decided that it was time to bring the little biscuit fillers outside and place them in the new run attached to the coop that they have yet to be inside of. Needless to say that the girls and boy had a blast for about 5 hours each day. But after bringing them back inside to their fairly new 2' X 4' brooder box, they did not seem to be nearly as happy as they were outside.

You can see photos of our coop and run on my BYC page.

My question is:

Yep, they all still have a little bit of down, mostly around their wee little bums, but a few still have a little bit of fuzz around their necks. So, even though they did well this weekend during the afternoon, is it safe to move them outside to bigger digs? Our evening temps rarely get below 40F, and I can put a ceramic heater in the coop if need be. We are in the Panhandle area of Florida, so it does get rather cool, but no prolonged cold spells.

Beers y'all,
Ken

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I like to keep them on some heat until they are fully feathered everywhere. No feathers is no coat. But you being there are looking at them and I am not.

So in wintertime also I give them a 100 watt bulb for a little longer than the spring chicks get. I let them go until 3 months sometimes with a 100 watter at night.

 

[loupan]

I have mine outside now and they are 6 weeks old still have fluff on bum as you say and they have been out for nearly 2 weeks now and doing great i go out and check last thing at night before i go bed and feel them and they are lovely and warm ,however it is summer here and real warm if it was winter or getting real cold at night i would defo still have them inside under a lamp not worth the risk ,my other girls didnt go out untill they were atleast 12 weeks old and completly feathered as i got them from a day old in the winter time .Go with ya gut instinct you will know if they seem cold

and if they are anything like mine they will tell you

 

[greenpeeps]

I'm in Ohio and stuck my 6 week old Buckeyes out in the coop with the temps in the 30's. They were fine. I did go back and check on them in the middle of the night and I couldn't believe that heat that 4 chicks could produce. They felt warmer then I was in my winter coat.

 

[Jackiekim]

Funny, I have the exact same question and was going to post about it (and didn't only because I'm new and haven't figured out how to start a new post/thread yet). I am in Coastal San Diego and the chicks reached six weeks two days ago. The books all say they can go out into the coop between 4 and 6 weeks, but there is no mention of time of year or general advise on nighttime temperatures these chicks can tolerate. Pretty nice here right now with day time highs of 70. Evenings can, however, fall to 40.

Anyhow, the long and short of it is that I've decided on a period of acclimatization. I'm bringing bring them back into the brooder at night and keeping them there without the light. I'm thinking I'd do this for another week. Of course, I'm thinking that the chicks might well be warmer inside coop (which supposedly has good insulating properties) than in the brooder in the garage (temp check this morning showed 56F).

 

[hockmangirl]

I would recommend a 100W (red) heat lamp/bulb in the coop, but other than that I think they would be fine outside. I put mine out and we have been in the teens at night. They are pretty good at keeping each other warm. Trust your own judgement with how you feel about your little one's, and good luck!

 

[Ole rooster]

Of course mine has a mama to look out for um but my chicks are 3 weeks yesterday. We had some 21 degree weather and some might wet and some warm. These 6 I have will have been out for 6 days now. On the real cold day mama didn't bring them out of the coop. Today it's rained off and on and she's had them out all day. She been teaching them to scratch up bugs.

I took this about 10 minutes ago.