Thinking about moving Chicks outside next wednesday.

[Hegatha]

My 2 barred rocks and 2 amerucanas will be 4 weeks wednesday its been about 60 to 70 during the day here and about 30 to 40s at night. I have a heat lamp set up in the coop and was gonna check how warm its stays in there tommorow morning. Are they ready to go out??? They are fully feathered.

 

[Fred's Hens]

I brood outdoors in weather much colder than that. Just be sure the heat lamp can produce an 80 degree circle of heat and they will be splendid.

 

[teach1rusl]

They'll be fine in your set-up!

Many stores now sell the remote thermometers very reasonably...around $15. Their range is 100 ft. It's made me feel SO much better being able to know the temp out in their little coop from my master bathroom (mine went out at 3 weeks, and we were much cooler here).

 

[Hegatha]

I checked the temp it only stays about 60 in there at night and think that might be to cold for them.

 

[blueseal]

i put my 12, 4 week old chicks outside in the coop lastnight with a 60 watt light bulb. they are fine this morning. it was 26 degrees this morning they werent under the light at all. they were off to the side all bunched together.

 

[Hegatha]

If they stay right under the light it would be warm for them but the whole in side wont stay over 60. I think Ill wait till the weekend its supposed to be upper 70s by the weekend.

 

[Lil_Miss_Farmer_Chick]

I live in Northern Michigan and we have had our chicks in the nursery wing in the coop since they were a week old. I have a heat lamp in there and they are just fine. We have gotten up to 58 degrees daytime and as low as 12 degrees overnight. I haven't lost any. They really can tolerate colder temps. I think we do tend to want to keep them warmer than they actually need.

This is our set up just before we put them in there. We hung a regular heat lamp with a 250W red-bulb from the rafter with a heavy chain attached. It is situated almost in the middle of the nursery space. For the first 2 weeks it was about a foot off the floor, now it's approx. 2 feet off the floor. I just kept checking their behavior to decide if the light needed to be lower or higher. They will tell you. I hope this helps ease your mind.

 

[debid]

You don't need the whole building to be warm -- just an area under the light. I was so confused about this at first thinking I needed the whole area to be somewhat warm so they wouldn't get chilled but it's just not true. If they had a mama hen rearing them, they'd run around outside in the cold and then retreat under her when they needed to warm up and then back out again. They'll do the same thing with a heat lamp in a coop.

 

[AlienChick]

I moved mine out to the shed when they were 3 and 5 weeks old.

They have the red heat lamp to huddle underneath if they get cold.

They love it out in the shed where they have way more room.

Since they have feathers, they can tolerate the cooler temps way better than you think.

The entire shed does not have to be warm; just right under the heat source.

Good luck!

 

[Hegatha]

Will they perch at night or do you think they will stay on the ground still not sure if I should put the lamp toward the ground or the perches?