Thinking Our Chicks Are Almost Ready For Outside

[andylegate]

The "Silver" Laced chicks that we got from Tractor Supply (I put the word silver in quotes, because as you can see from their feathers, they don't look silver to me, heh) we think are going from 4 weeks to 5 weeks old.

We do not know how old they were when we got them. My guess is about 2 weeks, as they were covered with down with only the very beginnings of wing feathers and were quite small.

2 weeks later, and they are feathering out nicely with most of their down gone and have gotten quite big.

We're still wondering about their sex, all though TS assured us they were all female......just like they are "silver" laced, right?, hehehehe,......anyways, two of the six are quite larger than the other four, have thick legs and very long tail feathers compared to the other 4 as you'll see from the pics I'm about to post.

Do you guys think they'll be ready to go out to their new home outside in another week? I'm here in South Carolina, weather has warmed up a LOT with lows only down in the 40's now.

Here are the pics:



Here the one in the middle is one of two with the thick legs and very long tail feathers (almost 3 times longer than the other 4):



The chicks have decided our cats are wussies, heh, they run over and peck the cat's paws if they stick them in, and the cat's don't like that.

 

[Impress]

Are you planning on having a source of heat in their coop for them? They look too young to handle the cold night weather at this point. They are starting to feather out, but they are not fully feathered, or large enough to produce enough body heat to handle 40 degree nights.

 

[andylegate]

I don't have a heat source out there, but hooking up the heat lamp would not be hard at all.

However, I was asking if they'd be ready in another week or so from now.

 

[Impress]

In my personal opinion, no. They are pretty young still, with a lot of baby fluff still going on in their chests and bellies. Unless you could set up their coop like a brooder and slowly, slowly wean the light from them, monitoring it to make sure you aren't dropping it too fast, I would keep them inside until they feather out completely.