New momma - questions

[crench222]

My family and I have gone ahead with our dream to have chickens! We have six 2 1/2 week old chicks (2 silver laced wyandottes, 2 americaunas and 2 barred rocks) and two 1 1/2 week old chicks (2 RIRs). As a new "momma" I have a few questions:

We have a "chick stick" treat which they all LOVE. We also got some dried mealworms but none of them seems to care about it. Are they too young still?

Also - we have some grit, and have been putting it down, but have no idea how much and how often?

We live in Kansas City MO and it's already 85 outside -- when would we be able to move them outside? We were thinking if we put them out but kept the heatlamp on outside that might work? I don't want to put the younger ones out yet as they still have a lot of fluff and not as many feathers.

Thanks!

 

[Tressa27884]

My family and I have gone ahead with our dream to have chickens! We have six 2 1/2 week old chicks (2 silver laced wyandottes, 2 americaunas and 2 barred rocks) and two 1 1/2 week old chicks (2 RIRs). As a new "momma" I have a few questions:

We have a "chick stick" treat which they all LOVE. We also got some dried mealworms but none of them seems to care about it. Are they too young still? They're probably still too young, you can try live mealworms, or you can cut the dried ones up and see what happens.

Also - we have some grit, and have been putting it down, but have no idea how much and how often? Sorry can't answer that as I don't use grit for my birds, I put dirt in instead - cheaper and easier.

We live in Kansas City MO and it's already 85 outside -- when would we be able to move them outside? We were thinking if we put them out but kept the heatlamp on outside that might work? I don't want to put the younger ones out yet as they still have a lot of fluff and not as many feathers. I wouldn't put any of them out until they are fully feathered, what are the night time temperatures? If you start at 95 degrees and come down by 5 degrees every week until you hit about 70 you can then probably put them outside. I'm always late to put mine out, I would be devastated if I put them out too early and they died. Good luck with your babies!

Thanks!