Should I take these chicks now....or (impatiently) wait for Spring?

[Bridebeliever]

I'm just here to give a plug for RIR. I'm a newbie. We have 3 Andelusians, 3 Wyandottes, 2 RIR and 1 Australorp. It's a toss up who's friendlier, our Rhodies or our Ausie! They are all 3 lap chickens and I totally LOVE their sweetness! They are all hatchery birds too!

 

[musclematt27]

I would seriously consider waiting till spring, Here is my reasoning.
1. temperatures starts at 95 for baby chicks and drops 5 degrees each week. for example week 2 they only need 90 degrees. So, a safe zone is 20 weeks before they can survive 0 degrees at night. That's 5 months till March. Since you have no heat there is no safety net for those extreme nights.
2. Baby chicks need to adjust slowly to cold weather change. you can throw them from the warm weather too the cold weather overnight. They can get very sick from the sudden weather change.
3. i lost a baby chick when my garage was over 70 degrees and i thought she would be ok for just one night. Outside even with pullet/cock it can take only one bad night when they are not fully chickens.
4. When a baby chick becomes pullets & cocks they need more room to roam and bump into each other as they establish pecking order. They could get very mean to each other (out of boredom) as they outgrow your containers. Also let them out only during day and bring them back into your heated area for night after the 10 week period. Days are always warmer than night and this will help them acclimate to the weather better. Make sure you have plastic up outside to protect against the harsh winter winds.
5. Do you know the amount of dust and feathers that will cover your room from them being locked inside?
If you still must do this now in late fall then here's how, each week start with 95 degrees then calculate down 5 degrees per week, once you put them in coop if the temperature goes below the calculation then bring them back inside for the night. How are you gonna handle the drinking water freezing over when its under 32 degrees with no electricity? You will have to bring fresh water out to them a few times a day in middle of winter.
Finally when you take them out if they huddle together then thats a bad sign. If they start roaming a bit then it may be ok for daytime.

 

[Dawn Emily]

Nah, you're even.  They're just as new at being chickens as you are at being a chicken owner.   So it's all good.  

Thanks Blooie. But they've been chickens longer than I've been a chicken newbie lol.

 

[Dawn Emily]

I love my RIR hens.  I have had three, and currently have two.  I told my story about my hen hitching a ride home with my dad and then disappearing.  She was adopted by a lady down their street who had a coop, but no chickens yet.  She came home to a RIR hen in her yard that ran up to her (mine were friendly and came for treats), so she figured it was a sign from God that she was meant to have chickens.  So, my hen is now part of a flock and her new name is "Ruby".  At least the story had a happy ending!  The other two I have are 3 years and 2 years old respectively.  Both are sweet birds and lay an egg almost every day!

Peeps61 that was a sweet story. So glad you made the lady happy with her sign from god.

 

[junebuggena]

I really enjoyed this thread. There was a lot of useful information. Ridge Runner's explanations on drafts and ventilation helped me more than the six books I read last week on backyard chickens.
Too bad I didn't get the info on the RIRs a month ago. I have 6 RIR chicks 5 fully grown hens and a rooster. He is gorgeous and has a beautiful crow.
So far I haven't experienced any nastiness. Maybe they know I'm a newbie.

That rooster is not a RIR. He is a very pretty mixed breed.

 

[Peeps61]

Peeps61 that was a sweet story. So glad you made the lady happy with her sign from god.

Me too! I wouldn't ask for her back since she is being spoiled rotten in her new home!

 

[appps]

Thanks for the plug, Ridgerunner - your check is in the mail! Seriously, OzarkEgghead, Ridgerunner is spot on with the advice you got, as usual. I brood my chicks outdoors too, but rather than use a heat lamp I do indeed prefer a heating pad draped over a cave. My first chicks were raised in the house and by 2 weeks old I was ready to throw them all out regardless of the unfinished coop, the sub-freezing temps and snow. By 5.5 weeks I did just that! Oy, the dust! The noise! The work! Life is so much easier now, and the chicks I raise are so much stronger than those! I'll give me a shameless self-plug here and offer this article for you to look at. https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/yes-you-certainly-can-brood-chicks-outdoors As for RIR, I've only had 3 of them, all roos and all quite by accident....a sexing error at the hatchery led to them being identified incorrectly at the feed store where I got them. And I ain't smart enough to know the difference until that first long, curly tail feather and that jarring crow appear! Those birds are in the freezer. They were indeed aggressive toward us and toward the other birds they were raised with. Is that true for all RIRs? I don't know. I very much doubt it. I have a good friend who has them and she loves having them and has never had an issue. So there ya go - same breed or variety, different results. Most folks love their Golden Laced Wyandotts too, but I couldn't get rid of those 5 bullies fast enough. If one was picking on a chicken the other four had to come and join in, pummeling their victim without mercy in a warped game of gang-war that was totally beyond pecking order issues. So in each breed or variety, you can have a variety of different personalities. But I digress - again. Lazy Gardener has a good idea about the extension cord, if for nothing else for water. But as she said, if you choose to do that, make sure that you've used all sensible precautions. When I use one, my professional electrician husband about has apoplexy, but we found these plastic protectors at Walmart. They are bight orange (at least mine is...I've since seen blue as well) and when you get the plug of the appliance pushed into the end of the extension cord, the hard plastic protector snaps shut around the connection. It's sealed against moisture and pulling apart that way. Good luck with what ever you decide to do!

Can I ask a question about your little cave. At what age do you turn the heat off? I've not got power to use this with a heat pad but was thinking just the insulation properties of the straw alone in this set up would speed moving them outdoors at night. We are heading already in spring here and it's only the nights that aren't warm enough yet.

 

[Blooie]

I started by turning mine down when the chicks told me it was time. I threw the "science" of chick raising out the window when I started using Mama Heating Pad and the cave and let plain old common sense and the chicks dictate what would happen when, rather than the old 95 degrees the first week, 90 the second week, etc conventional wisdom. If they were staying out of the cave completely or staying toward the front they were too warm and ready for it get turned down a couple of notches. But this isn't an exact science - by 2 weeks old they were spending most of their time running around the brooder or sitting on top of cave. They'd sleep up there, scratch in the straw, play king of the mountain......by three weeks the pad was turned down to about 2 or 3 and by 4 weeks they were off it completely. A lot depends on your ambient temperatures, too. That's where common sense comes into play. If it's cold outside, they'll spend more time underneath and vice versa. This video of my chicks was taken when it was between 20 and 30 degrees....I can't remember exactly now.

I'm not sure you'd get any benefit from just the straw as insulation. I would think it would be hard to teach them to use the cave if the heat source wasn't there to entice them. How old are the chicks you have now? Are they well feathered?

 

[SusanD]

I have a 8 Month old RIR. Personality wise, she does not like being held, so would not make a good lap chicken. Other than that, she is easy to catch and handle, will follow me around along with the other two, and will let me stroke her when she is roosting, so not too bad

It sounds like you have a lot going on with your Mom and the puppies and kittens you are taking care of, so maybe it would be easier on you to start in the Spring?

 

[appps]

I started by turning mine down when the chicks told me it was time. I threw the "science" of chick raising out the window when I started using Mama Heating Pad and the cave and let plain old common sense and the chicks dictate what would happen when, rather than the old 95 degrees the first week, 90 the second week, etc conventional wisdom. If they were staying out of the cave completely or staying toward the front they were too warm and ready for it get turned down a couple of notches. But this isn't an exact science - by 2 weeks old they were spending most of their time running around the brooder or sitting on top of cave. They'd sleep up there, scratch in the straw, play king of the mountain......by three weeks the pad was turned down to about 2 or 3 and by 4 weeks they were off it completely. A lot depends on your ambient temperatures, too. That's where common sense comes into play. If it's cold outside, they'll spend more time underneath and vice versa. This video of my chicks was taken when it was between 20 and 30 degrees....I can't remember exactly now. I'm not sure you'd get any benefit from just the straw as insulation. I would think it would be hard to teach them to use the cave if the heat source wasn't there to entice them. How old are the chicks you have now? Are they well feathered?

No they are only two weeks old but I'm over having them indoors . I was thinking it may work a bit like an iglo since they use hay bales to make very insulated houses. I've got a reptile heating pad I could but not sure how safe it would be. They are already outside with no heat of a day.