Ok... its gonna be 43 degrees tonight

[maralynn28]

Mine are only 3 wks old, and have been outside during the day in the mid 50's (but beautiful days!), in the garage at night (near freezing temps outside) but with a brooder light, but it doesn't get any warmer than 60 in the garage under the light. I think we will be moving them outside without a brooder lamp early because they REALLY, I mean REALLY enjoy being outside and when I do bring them in and set up the light, they actually seem to avoid it. Strange, when they do huddle it's just outside of the lamp area but they usually walk around all happy. I don't really think they like the lamp. There are 4 of them, not a lot but apparently enough to keep each other warm enough. It does worry me when it gets colder, and I check up on them like clockwork, but they are always fine and just cock their head at me like "whaddaya want? All we want are more snacks."

I'm going to move them outside maybe next week with deep bedding, and will keep the brooder with lamp avail in garage in case there are really cold nights, but I'm pretty sure they would rather be outside even though it is a little colder rather than warmer inside and bored.

Especially with that much bedding and insulation, and with each other... I'm sure they will be fine. I was really anxious about it, but really I am starting to understand that although domesticated they can still handle more than we give them credit for.

eta: my girls are DUCKS tho, so don't know how different that is.

 

[patandchickens]

If it matters, as one data point, I have a singleton chick in a pen in the chicken bldg right now, haven't given him heat since about 5-6 wks, the temperature inside the building stays about 50-60 at night and he's totally fine. However I did this with a lot of observation... if at ALL in doubt, it is much better to make a low-wattage lamp available to them just in case.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Dragynnechick]

Thank you everyone! I ended up not putting any kind of light or heat source in their coop. I left a thermometer in there and the lowest it got was 43degrees... they were fine and peeking out of the window at me today... no peep-clucking or anything! It was 46 deg. in there when I went to the coop to feed em some treats. Think they like being in a BIG house. Tonight's low is 38, so we'll see... High today is 46. Dern MN!

Grin!

 

[kokonut]

I bought a cold-flex extension cord {50ft.} and the coolest triple tap with an in-line shock protector that lights up...all this so I could plug in a thermostatically controlled outlet. It automatically turns on if the temp gets down to 35 degrees and turns off at 45 degrees... For the winter I was thinking of plugging in a 100 watt red heat lamp and the water warmer, so they will both kick on automatically so I can sleep without worrying...I think I may be a little over zealous, but I've been a nurse way too long... I found amazon has great prices on these items, and I didn't want to wait until next winter to buy them.....We usually don't get extreme weather of any kind up here in the great northwest, but occasionally we get a hard freeze for a week or so....

 

[CityChook]

Sounds like you're fine. Chookies are pretty tough. But you *will* need electricity for next winter. Luckily, you have all summer to work out the kinks.
Glad all is well - weird weather we're having, eh? The snow a couple nights ago really threw me for a loop!

cc

 

[rooster47]

I have a question. My chicks are 5 weeks old and will be going out to the coop next week. We have an old chicken coop (100 years old) that I have been using as a potting shed and my husband is turning it back into a coop for our 5 Isa Brown chicks. We have a gravel floor in the coop. Do you think gravel will be ok for the chicks. I thought I could just hose it down to clean out the poop on the floor. Any thoughts? Thank God for this site!