Too early to go out?

[7beauties]

We have 7 chickies and I'm wondering when it would be safe for them to go out to their own house. Don't get me wrong...I love having them inside with us but we have a small 3 bedroom house and we clean and clean but they seem to be overpowering us! We live in New Mexico and the weather is warm but breezy. The babies are about 5 weeks old and I don't want to impose any risk on them by prematurely putting them out in a coop. So any advice will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Anianna]

I put mine outside at 4.5 weeks. The temps here have been 80s or 90s during the day and upper 60s at night and they've been just fine.

 

[Blue_Myst]

It really depends on how warm it gets. They are usually fully feathered by 6-8 weeks of age, but if it's a good 70+ degrees out, they would probably be all right as long as it doesn't drop below, say, 40 degrees at night. You could even just put them in the coop during the daytime, if you aren't comfortable with them being out at night.

I don't blame you for wanting to put them outside--by five weeks they sure are a handful!

Good luck with them!

 

[wayneh]

If you have a coop put them in it. we live in Alabama and we put our 5 week olds out bout a month ago. It was still a little cool at night so we put a light in for them. they would get out in the run during the day and back to bed at night. I would keep them locked in the coop for 3 or 4 days before letting them in the run. we just let ours out the very first day, and they didn't know where to go to bed at. they just set down on the ground. we had to put them up. after 3 days locked up, they knew wher the bed room was. good luck, they will be fine. just keep the varmits away.

 

[7beauties]

The chicks have almost all of their feathers (just the tops of their heads still have fuzz) but the temps here are around 70 to 75 during the day and around 50 at night. Thats why I was unsure about how they would handle the sudden change.

 

[7beauties]

Thank you everyone! They are getting a bit rebellious on us and I agree, we could put them out at day and bring 'em in at night!

 

[YYZ]

Hello 7beauties
would love to see some photos if possible.
Welcome from Maine.

 

[BellevueOmlet]

Everyone seems right on. They have some good feathers by now and will be fully feathered in a couple weeks. With good weather, they are fine now. It depends how much you want to baby them. I really baby mine and keep them inside until about 9 weeks but that is unneccesarily long. Give thema heat lamp for night if it is cold and bring them back in if it gets really cold and you should be good.