tcosupreme
In the Brooder
- Jun 5, 2020
- 3
- 21
- 18
Well along with the rest of America we’re sheltering so what better excuse than to get 4 day-old chicks from the feed store up the road. We’re in the far reaches of SF East Bay with suburbia on the left of us and rural on the right.
one buff orpington
One black australorp
One welsumer
One cinnamon queen
they are 5 weeks tomorrow, and they’ve been outside in the coop I just built for the last week. (Were in a cardboard brooder in garage before that).
have just one question so far that the forums don’t seem to address anywhere. I get the idea around dropping brooder temp weekly, and the ambient day temps have ranged in the 80s and 90s so it’s been fine. Temps (in the otherwise I heated garage) get much lower at night so I kept the brooder light on 24/7 for the first few weeks. I understand they should be fine without heat once fully feathered when ambient temps are good, which I believe they have been. But our ambient daytime temps are DRASTICALLY different from ambient nighttime temps (like over their short lifetimes in the 80s up to 100 during the day but in the 50s and 60s at night. I entirely stopped using a lamp when I moved them outside about a week ago (1 mo old) and they’ve been fine, but it’s been on the warm side. I think they’ve had at least one night at 57 (which I know because I have a wireless thermometer rigged inside the coop).
But for the next few days at least, the temp is dropping down to the 60s in day and high 40s or low 50s at night. Are they “out of the woods” so I don’t have to worry or do I need to consider (a) putting them back in the brooder in the garage which they’re kinda big for now, or (b) rig heat lamp in the coop (which makes me nervous: it will likely get too hot, they’ve gotten used to the darkness, the extension cord and fire hazard)?
one buff orpington
One black australorp
One welsumer
One cinnamon queen
they are 5 weeks tomorrow, and they’ve been outside in the coop I just built for the last week. (Were in a cardboard brooder in garage before that).
have just one question so far that the forums don’t seem to address anywhere. I get the idea around dropping brooder temp weekly, and the ambient day temps have ranged in the 80s and 90s so it’s been fine. Temps (in the otherwise I heated garage) get much lower at night so I kept the brooder light on 24/7 for the first few weeks. I understand they should be fine without heat once fully feathered when ambient temps are good, which I believe they have been. But our ambient daytime temps are DRASTICALLY different from ambient nighttime temps (like over their short lifetimes in the 80s up to 100 during the day but in the 50s and 60s at night. I entirely stopped using a lamp when I moved them outside about a week ago (1 mo old) and they’ve been fine, but it’s been on the warm side. I think they’ve had at least one night at 57 (which I know because I have a wireless thermometer rigged inside the coop).
But for the next few days at least, the temp is dropping down to the 60s in day and high 40s or low 50s at night. Are they “out of the woods” so I don’t have to worry or do I need to consider (a) putting them back in the brooder in the garage which they’re kinda big for now, or (b) rig heat lamp in the coop (which makes me nervous: it will likely get too hot, they’ve gotten used to the darkness, the extension cord and fire hazard)?
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