Ready to move outside?

[tviss711]

Hi everyone, here’s a photo for reference. These guys are about 4 1/2 weeks old, and look pretty feathered out as you can see. 2 Buff Orp 2 SS. They are anxious to move out of the brooder. Would I be okay moving them out this week? Temps are in mid 40’s at night, high 50’s low 60’s during the day. I’m using a Producers Pride brooder plate that can also be a coop heater. We could run an extension cord out to put it in their temporary coop, but I would rather keep them in another week than bother with that, so my question is do these guys look robust enough to not have any supplemental heat outside at this stage? We kept our first batch of chicks in the house for like 10 weeks (I was a nervous new chicken mom). There are only four of them which I know isn’t a ton for huddle power, but it is something. They’ll be full time in a small coop with a run attached in the chicken yard, so the rest of the flock can get safely acquainted until we can fully integrate them later. So anyway, should I wait another week or are they fluffy enough you think?

 

[Kiki]

I'd have put them out two weeks ago with no heat.

 

[Insnesnakos]

Sure they can go outside

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Yup. They're birds. Just like the wild ones.

 

[tviss711]

I'd have put them out two weeks ago with no heat.

Awesome thanks! I tend to worry, and wouldn’t want them to be too cold. But they are so fluffy they must be fine!

 

[tviss711]

Yup. They're birds. Just like the wild ones.

Thank you! Sometimes I just need to be reassured. They were designed for outside, after all!

 

[Happy hen lover]

View attachment 3803434

Hi everyone, here’s a photo for reference. These guys are about 4 1/2 weeks old, and look pretty feathered out as you can see. 2 Buff Orp 2 SS. They are anxious to move out of the brooder. Would I be okay moving them out this week? Temps are in mid 40’s at night, high 50’s low 60’s during the day. I’m using a Producers Pride brooder plate that can also be a coop heater. We could run an extension cord out to put it in their temporary coop, but I would rather keep them in another week than bother with that, so my question is do these guys look robust enough to not have any supplemental heat outside at this stage? We kept our first batch of chicks in the house for like 10 weeks (I was a nervous new chicken mom). There are only four of them which I know isn’t a ton for huddle power, but it is something. They’ll be full time in a small coop with a run attached in the chicken yard, so the rest of the flock can get safely acquainted until we can fully integrate them later. So anyway, should I wait another week or are they fluffy enough you think?

Yep they look feathered enough but I keep them enclosed in coop for a week or 2 so they memorize coop as "home" and go back every night.

 

[tviss711]

Yep they look feathered enough but I keep them enclosed in coop for a week or 2 so they memorize coop as "home" and go back every night.

Yes they will be fully enclosed in a pre-fab coop with an attached (but closed) run - we recently upgraded from that coop to a converted shed for our grown gals. We kept this old one to grow out the new chicks in, so they will be moved to this coop for a few weeks while the other girls can safely get used to seeing them. When it comes time to fully integrate, we will have to figure out how to switch them to the “big girl coop,” but it wasn’t too hard for our older gals to figure it out when we initially swapped coops. Just a day or two of “wait, where do we go?” and they had it sorted. We figure it might be easier with the babies because they’ll watch the other girls go into the shed and hopefully follow suit!

 

[rosemarythyme]

If they're not already off heat I'd get them fully off heat and then start taking them out for a few hours each day, to ease them into it.

Otherwise yes they could be outside already.

 

[Happy hen lover]

Yes they will be fully enclosed in a pre-fab coop with an attached (but closed) run - we recently upgraded from that coop to a converted shed for our grown gals. We kept this old one to grow out the new chicks in, so they will be moved to this coop for a few weeks while the other girls can safely get used to seeing them. When it comes time to fully integrate, we will have to figure out how to switch them to the “big girl coop,” but it wasn’t too hard for our older gals to figure it out when we initially swapped coops. Just a day or two of “wait, where do we go?” and they had it sorted. We figure it might be easier with the babies because they’ll watch the other girls go into the shed and hopefully follow suit!

I use a night light on a timer at dusk to lighten there way into coop.