Putting baby chicks outdoors and using hemp bedding

[celtic kiss]

I have 14 chicks that are one month old. Is it safe to use hemp bedding with them? Also when can I put them outside? I live in Idaho and our days are in the 70 and 80 degree temps but the nights are 40-50 degrees. I do not have a heating system of any kind out in the coop. It hasn't been a problem before but we also got our chicks earlier in the year. Six of the chicks are meat chicks so they are huge already. Also this is our first time using the hemp bedding so how much should we use for a non-deep layering system? Thank you so much.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Hemp should be ok but I haven't actually used it with chicks (I'll do it next time I have babies).

At 1 month old they can be outside now with those temperatures, provided they've been fully weaned off heat and acclimated to the temperatures. If you haven't done that yet, then spend the next week or so working on getting them acclimated to outside temps, then provided they're all healthy and decently feathered they're good to go.

 

[shannonnegi]

I used hemp for the 6 chicks I got last week. I was very worried they would eat it instead of their food but so far they just enjoy scratching & pecking it around. No issues with any ingestion that I can tell & it's keeping them warmer as well as less stinky! My husband even commented that they didn't smell yet so I will take it as a win!