New to BYC, from New Hampshire

[Dan Lewis]

Just picked up 8-week old baby chicks for our flock. 4 Marans and 4 Black Sex Link. They will be inside for 1 week this Saturday. When is it ok to move them to the garage? Garage stays between 40-50 degrees this time of year.

The heat source is a brooder heat plate. Do I leave out the food all the time? All they seem to do is eat whenever the light in the room they're in is on. When the light is out they hunker under the brooder. Normal?

I have a coop ready to go outside with a 9-foot run. When can they go outside? 7 weeks? Will they need a heat source in the coop? Do I leave the food and water in the coop or in the run?

I plan to put HC under the edges of the whole setup to deter animals from digging.

Picture of my coop attached.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Just to clarify... 8-week-olds or 8, 1-week-olds?

If they're 8 weeks old they should be outside already.

If they're 1 week old they can still be brooded in the garage if you'd prefer, with the heat plate.

Chicks should have food available at all times but when the lights go off at night, they'll stop eating and drinking and go to bed. Ideally you want to gradually dim the light to simulate natural daylight, if you simply shut off the light they may struggle to get into bed, so to speak.

They can go out once they're mostly feathered, around 4 to 5 weeks, depending on your climate. How cold does it get where you're at? Unless you're in the arctic there's no need to heat a coop. Food and water need to go where they make sense... in a small coop, it's unlikely you can fit them both inside, and water is a liability inside since you want to keep moisture out.

I would give some consideration to opening up the gables or installing a gable vent or two in the peak of that unit. It needs more ventilation if that side window is all it comes with.

 

[Dan Lewis]

It has a vent on the other side of the gable and another window like the one that shows on the other side. It's in the mid 40's as a low temp in the beginning of May in NH.