Too cold?

[brewer12345]

So my first batch of coturnix will be 5 weeks old on Thursday. I took the heat lamp off them entirely when they hit 4 weeks and they have been in the basement (low 60s constant temp) under an LED light on a timer. I am considering putting them in their permanent outdoor abode at 5 weeks, but wanted to see if the weather sounds OK for this. The birds are pretty much feathered out, with a few missing some breast feathers. The outdoor coop is 8X3 and about a third of it is entirely enclosed (wire bottom, but will put in cardboard and straw for the first few weeks in the enclosed area). The rest is a plywood roof and wire on all other sides.

The weather for a week or ten days of when I might put them out there will be nice, with highs in the 70s and lows in the 40s. After that we will revert to typical spring weather, which is highs in the 50s and 60s, lows mostly in the 30s (and a few frosts). This sound OK? they would be 6 weeks and change by the time the weather turns and get a week of cooler nights to get the chance to grow out more plumage.

 

[lomine]

They should be fine. Once there are exposed to cooler temperatures they should grow any missing feathers a little faster.

 

[brewer12345]

Great! We are climbing the learning curve with these guys and the 18 that made it out of the 28 chicks I bought are almost all of decent size and at least half are hens, so I want to avoid freezing them out unnecessarily. OTOH, batch 2 will be out of the incubator in under 2 weeks and they are getting pretty big for the brooder. When they start to crow, my wife will be very keen to get them out of the basement...