Just wanted to share my experience (my 1st) with moving chicks out to the coop. I'm in NY and the temps are down to about 50 degrees at night. I have 4 week old chicks that were brooding in a rubbermaid box in a room off my bedroom. There are 3 chicks - Australorp, Barred Rock and Golden Comet - and they were getting too big for the box. I hadn't been using the heat lamp on them for about a week because I noticed they were moving to the opposite corner. They are almost completely feathered out. I started taking them out for a couple of days, and left them in the coop all day on Sunday. Daytime temps were about 60 degrees. They were fine - no huddling, lots of playing and scratching and running around. After a very messy escape from the brooder box, I decided to try them out in the coop last night. I partitioned them off from my two older hens, put down plenty of bedding and put batteries in my flashlight. I checked on them a few times and they were fine. No piling, just snuggling together. When I went out just before sunup, they were awake and eating and drinking - all spread out with no snuggling or huddling together, so I guess they were warm enough. Yay chicks!!
yay! Looks like what I will be doing in the next week or so- mine are 4 weeks yesterday our day time temps are mid 50's... can I ask how did you take them outside? Did you bring them out to the coop, or brind the brooder out?
Quote:I put them out in the coop while the big girls were free-ranging. At night the chicks go into the nesting area, which is next to the hens' roosting area but separated by a transparent piece of plastic (with a 2 inch space at the top to allow for ventilation). I just don't know how long to give them until I can integrate the chicks into the regular roosting area with the hens. I guess when my oldest hen (16 weeks) stops being cranky and bossy!
no more heat bc they need it to get the feathers grown out. The colder the deeper and denser the under fluff . They will be very hardy before the cold snap. Perfect timinmg.
