Moving those meaties outside

[BackyardAR]

I know all about reducing the brooder temp by five degrees each week until your birds are "fully feathered", but these meat birds (my first) are growing and developing nearly twice as fast as my egg layers did. At what age do Cornish X meat birds generally become fully feathered?

Nights here are still mostly in the 40s. I am willing to put heat lamps in the tractor that's sitting outside ready for them, but don't want to rush it. That said I do want the stink out of my garage ASAP.

 

[coloradoalice]

I hear you. I have 25 stinky red rangers in a tank in my basement. They will be 4 weeks old on Wednesday and my plan is to move them outdoors next Sunday after this bit of cold we are going to have the next few days passes. I'll put a heat light in their shelter for nights it's in the 30's and that's it, it's time for them to get out of my house!!

 

[redsoxs]

I'm with you! Gotta get mine through a little cold snap mid-week and then it's to the garden shed and after a couple of weeks - to the coop!

 

[travifive]

My CC broilers don't get fully feathered until about the 5th week. I keep a brooder lamp on until the nights get above the low 40s. They could probably handle it but I like to be sure. They are good when it's a dry cold but if it's damp they will lose body heat so fast they will start dropping like flys. Trust me, we had a tragedy with our first batch of this season. I had 44 in an outside tractor that is covered 75%. We had temps of mid 70's for the past few weeks then all of a sudden we had a heavy rain (2 3/4" in 3 hours) and the temp dropped to the low 50's. I ground couldn't absorb the water that fast and so it got soggy inside and around the pen. I was at work and didn't realize that the rain was going to be that bad or that cold. I got home 4 hours after the rain started and 38 were dead!! My wife and I were able to save 6 by bringing them inside and putting them back into some brooder boxes and warmed them up with hair dryers. I take full blame for it. I should have paid more attention to the weather but boy did I learn a valuable lesson. Don't take chances. If it happens again they will either get a thick bed of hay in their pen or they will go back to the brooder house until the weather has passed.

 

[jaj121159]

I wanted to get my 4 week olds out last week, but we had a cold snap and real crappy weather. Instead I kept in the brooder with one heat lamp on and about half of the 160 birds I had got smothered. I normally get mine out at 3 to 4 weeks of age. We have another blast of cold weather coming through Nebraska mid-week. I'm going to move temprarily to a vacant layer coop and hope to get them outside this weekend.

Normally the birds can handle cold weather better than hot weather, but at 4 weeks they are between the fuzz stage and the fully feathered stage. I would get them out sooner if it wasn't for the forecasted rain and snow for the middle of the week.

 

[BackyardAR]

That same midweek cold snap for you will give us a low in the upper 30s. (arkansas). So with heat lamp(s) in the tractor, and only 24 birds you think it will be ok temp wise? They have a fair amount of feathers for 3 weeks+, but fuzzy heads and bellies still.

 

[BCMaraniac]

I had 15 Cornish Rocks in the basement along with 2 red sex-links(talk about a size difference!). My hubby made one corner of a converted horse stall into a brooder, and one side is removable. We live in Tennessee, so when they were two weeks old, we moved them to the barn (undeated), and secured them in the brooder for a couple of days. Then we opened it during the day and watched them. They would come out on their own to eat and drink and run around in the stall and go back into the brooder under the light when they wanted. So I would turn the light off during the day on warm days, and then back on near dark. They are 4-5 weeks old now, and are feathered for the most part. Last night was in the 40's, so I left the light off, and they were fine this morning, all lined up at their chain-link gate wating for their breakfast. I don't secure them in the brooder at night, so they sleep wherever they want, and because I have an Australian Shepherd in the barn hall standing watch, I don't worry about nocturnal predators(she kills possums). This is working well for me so far. My first set of 6 CR's are 8-9 weeks old, and I did the same to them at 4 weeks. As soon as they are harvested, I plan to strip the stall, and get ready for Red Rangers in mid May. I plan to start them in the barn, so the basement won't smell.

 

[BackyardAR]

I put mine out in a tractor last nig and put a heat lamp in one end. They did great. We have a cold snap coming, but at worst I think it will be high 30s.

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

I still have my 6 week old CX in the garage darn it. It was 7 degrees last night and we had about a foot of snow today. I thought I'd have them out in my tractor more than a week ago, but I'm afraid I'd lose them all. I am treating the area they sleep in like a litter box, scooping out the soiled bedding every day and adding new shavings. The rest of the pen gets a scooping every two or three days, so the smell isn't as bad as it could be. I thought I'd get away with an early batch because we had a record warm February, but I've got to believe that April has had record cold.

I guess the good part is I don't have to slog out in the snow and freezing temperatures several times a day to check on them. Throwing on the clogs, or even just opening the door and peeking in is all I really need to do.

 

[ijon]

I took my chicks out of my garage yesterday. Put them in the barn in a cage with heat lamp. Checked on them this morning and the are doing fine. They are four weeks old. Bought from Cackle.