? on lighting.

[magnolia-1971]

Hi, I am new here, but what a great find!

My husband and I bought 6 baby chicks about 5 weeks ago.

We have them in the garage in thier coope. It just barely fits in the garage. We live in Wisconsin, so the days are between 55-80 degrees with the nights being around 35-45. It still could get colder though.

We have a heat lamp in one side and a 100 watt white light bulb in the other side. We are wondering when we can turn off the lights? We have been taking them outside and turning the lights off during the day for a little while, but how long can we leave them off? And when do they not need lights at night?

We have 2 books on raising chickens and cannot find this answer anywhere.

Thanks for the help.

I tried to add pictures, but haven't figured that out yet.

 

[TurkeyMountainChickens]

At five weeks they should be kept at temperatures of about 70 degrees. So, if the days are warm enough, they can go a while without lights. But they'll need at least the heat lamp at night for a while.

Once they are fully feathered (no more bare spots!) you can turn the lights off.

Of course, when it gets below freezing in the winter, I put a light up in the coop for the adult birds, too. At the very least, I want to keep the water liquid!

 

[magnolia-1971]

Here is a picture of one of our chickens. I hope this works.

 

[magnolia-1971]

here is the coop