Previous owner said they could be out by 4 weeks. WHAT?!!

[magicpigeon]

I actually saw it, though! It's summer in Australia, which could explain all the little palm-sized 4 week old chicks running around her yard. I read 5-6 weeks were needed at least (longer for silkies, etc.) but she says she has very low death rate and that the outside is better for them. Is SHE the crazy one, or am I?

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

Four weeks is about as long as I can stand them in the house. That's generally when I move them out too. So far all of mine have done great.

 

[gritsar]

I start taking my chicks outside at 2 weeks on nice days. The rest of the time they live in a heated brooder, outside. Mama hen doesn't keep chicks under her wings at all times. They wander around and only go back to mama for warm-ups and motherings.

 

[Junkmanme]

I brought "day-old" chicks home from the feed store Sept 1. (They were probably about a week old maybe.)

I put them outside in a large plastic tub (brooder) with hay in the bottom and a 250 watt red heat lamp about 18 inches above them in one corner and water/food in another corner. The area is fenced off. They stayed in the "brooder-tub" for about a week and then started getting out....so I put hay in a dog-house (IGLOO type) with the top OFF and the light above it. They stayed in there...but they all roamed around during the day.

I didn't lose any. They were White Leghorns, Brown Leghorns, and Rhode Island Reds....only eight of them to keep each other warm.

I expect them to start laying eggs in another 6 weeks.

-Junkmanme-

 

[gryeyes]

It's really tied to temperature. 95 the first couple of days, 90ish the remainder of the first week.
85ish the second week
80ish the third week
75ish the fourth week
70ish the fifth week
65ish the sixth week.
60ish the seventh week.
55ish the 8th week.

If the outside night-time temps are close to those temps at the appropriate weeks, they can go outside full time just fine, and in summer, mine do.

Winter temps around here mean they stay in brooder until 8 wks.

 

[magicpigeon]

Quote:
I let mine out when they were 5 weeks because I was leaving in 2 days. They did ok but since there were only 2 they needed the extra week in the brooder due to lack of other body heat

Thanks for the replies

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

Ahh... that is the other factor. How many you are moving out. Just a couple will need more heat than a whole herd of them. This last lot I moved out at 4 weeks is comprised of 5 LF and 10 silkies. They huddle up together when they get cold. Their combined body heat works just like a mama hen's. If there were just a few of them I would likely keep them in the house a bit longer.

 

[chillmiller]

on out here in arizonaq and i kicked my chicks out of the brooder at 5 weeks and that was dec 14th or so there alll still kickin and gettin along with my adult flock

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

My 5-week-old chicks were out in the snow yesterday.

 

[Judy]

I have not seen my little ones under their mama during the day since they were one week old, and we have had a cold December with highs usually in the 40's and some 50's lows in the teens several nights. No heat, no insulation, and an airy coop. It is 28 as I type at 8:35 AM; I just returned from giving them some unfrozen water.

I brooded two sets of chicks in the house a few years ago (never again) and kept temps about 10 degrees or more below those listed by gryeyes (and recommended here,) because when it was warmer than that, they would stay at the other end of the brooder -- and this was a large L shaped brooder. I had to raise the heat that high to get them to use the whole brooder.

Old timers around here would hang a 100W bulb in a box outdoors and call it a brooder. Occasionally they lost some to piling on a really cold night, but most survived. Now, admittedly, these old timers also call cracked corn chicken feed; just talked to one the other day, and he works in a feed store.... Not saying the old ways are better -- just that some of our new ways may not be, either.