Too young to move to barn?

[Godzillamax]

I've got a three-phase process when we get new chicks. They start off in a brooder in our basement with a heat lamp. Then when they out-grow the brooder (typically week 3-4) we move them to a temporary coop in the barn.

The temp coop is made up of 5 panels I made out of PVC pipe and chicken wire that I connect to form a box (envision a shoe box, just without a lid and flipped upside down and no solid sides just chicken wire). The ground gets covered with 6"-8" of shavings and we hang a heat lamp so on cooler nights the girls still have added heat. While the temp coop is in the barn and protected from the elements it's not a heated barn, so whatever the outside ambient temp is will be the temp in the barn. And without solid sides on the temp coop the heat from the heat lamp doesn't stay centralized.

At 16 weeks, when we move them off medicated chick feed and start them on layer feed, is when we move them to the main coop and integrate them with older full-grown chickens.

Problem is I've got 23 chicks that are 2 1/2 weeks old and my brooder was't built for that many chicks (built for 12-16) so as they are testing their wings and running around like crazy it's just getting very crowded in there.

I'd like to move them to the temp coop in the barn but we are having a spring cold-snap this week and temps are down twenty degrees Fahrenheit less than the past few weeks, so highs will be in the high 40s to low 50s, and lows in the mid 30s F all week.

I'm concerned even with a heat lamp or two this might just be too cold for 2 1/2 week old chicks and I should wait at least until Saturday when temps get back to the high 60s, with lows in the 50s.

Thoughts?

 

[Ridgerunner]

My brooder is in the coop so the chicks go there straight out of the incubator or from the post office, even with outside temps below freezing. My brooder has a solid top, that acts as my droppings board, but the sides are hardware cloth. I have a "chimney" in the top for my heat lamp. In cold weather I wrap it in plastic to hold heat in. The chimney allows hot air to rise so I get decent ventilation and the far side can cool down so I'm not going to overheat them. Some mornings the far end of the brooder has ice in it but the heat lamp end stays pretty toasty.

To me the biggest problem brooding them outside are the temperature swings. You need to keep one area warm enough in the coolest temps but another area cool enough in the warmest temps. Wrapping it in plastic but leaving enough high ventilation accomplishes that for me. It sounds like your brooder is big enough to accomplish that.