Too cold?

[klikk]

What are your outside temps? Are they similar to the original poster?

Yeah, now they are. High of 28F forecasted today, but last week the highs were around 0F.
It sounds like we may hit 40F this week.

 

[WAchickychicky]

Yeah, now they are. High of 28F forecasted today, but last week the highs were around 0F.
It sounds like we may hit 40F this week.

If they are spending all day outside in those temps, then coming into 60F at night, I think you could move them to the coop at 8ish weeks. I'm a softy and moved me brooder batch into the coop at 10 weeks.

If they are living all day at 60 F, I would agree with your plan to move the brooder to the basement, then outside so they have time to acclimate. You can also put them outside all day, but give them a "warm up" area, draft free with a heat lamp. I did this, being very careful that the heat lamp was tightly secured and not hanging over flammable materials.

 

[klikk]

If they are spending all day outside in those temps, then coming into 60F at night, I think you could move them to the coop at 8ish weeks. I'm a softy and moved me brooder batch into the coop at 10 weeks.

If they are living all day at 60 F, I would agree with your plan to move the brooder to the basement, then outside so they have time to acclimate. You can also put them outside all day, but give them a "warm up" area, draft free with a heat lamp. I did this, being very careful that the heat lamp was tightly secured and not hanging over flammable materials.

Don't yet have a heat lamp, but have a 40w panel in the coop to keep the water bucket from freezing, I wonder if that will be enough? We could also put their brooder plate heater in there, but only a few of them would fit under there now, they're so big.
We cleaned out the tub today, and put them in the basement. It's about 50-55F down there.
If they are too cold, what do we look for? Or would it be too late?

 

[DobieLover]

Don't yet have a heat lamp, but have a 40w panel in the coop to keep the water bucket from freezing, I wonder if that will be enough? We could also put their brooder plate heater in there, but only a few of them would fit under there now, they're so big.
We cleaned out the tub today, and put them in the basement. It's about 50-55F down there.
If they are too cold, what do we look for? Or would it be too late?

8 week old birds at 50F will be just fine.

 

[klikk]

8 week old birds at 50F will be just fine.

Yeah, I'm not too worried about them in the basement. More so in the uninsulated coop at 20-40F.

 

[WAchickychicky]

Yeah, I'm not too worried about them in the basement. More so in the uninsulated coop at 20-40F.

I would suggest a week or two to adjust to the 50F. Then move to the coop. If the coop is tailored to the size of your flock (example, I have 7 chickens in a coop that could hold 10, not a massive coop that could house 30-40) then they should be just fine in the 20-40F coop by week 10. They will perch together, fluff up and be fine. We just had temps in the 20s, and I felt how warm they were under their feathers, toasty!

 

[klikk]

I would suggest a week or two to adjust to the 50F. Then move to the coop. If the coop is tailored to the size of your flock (example, I have 7 chickens in a coop that could hold 10, not a massive coop that could house 30-40) then they should be just fine in the 20-40F coop by week 10. They will perch together, fluff up and be fine. We just had temps in the 20s, and I felt how warm they were under their feathers, toasty!

Ok, sounds good! We'll give them a week or so, and then try it out! We have nine chicks, and three boxes...The coop itself is 4'x4', with some room on top of the boxes as well. It might get a little tight in there once they are full grown, we'll see. We ordered ten and were kinda assuming we'd lose more than one after they arrived.