weaning off heat

[vivarium]

hello!!

i have 10 feathered out bantam ee chicks!

they are still in a brooder but it’s been in the chicken coop outside since they were 3 weeks old. they are around 6 weeks now (hatched aug 10-12th from what the hatchery said).

the lamp is still on in there at night and the temps on my thermometer are reading 15c-17c in the morning. i have started putting them in the run for longer periods of time during the day.

how should i go about weaning them off this heat lamp? the morning temps outside have been approaching frosts (~5c) but I don’t want to shock them.

i know they are hardy and we will be removing the brooder soon and letting them have the whole coop over the next week or 2.

can someone share a guideline for removing the heat lamp and how long i should raise the lamp for? i don’t plan on using it at all during winter because the hatchery advised against it since power losses are relatively common here in winter and i don’t want them to be shocked in the event of power failure.

thanks so much!!

 

[DobieLover]

how should i go about weaning them off this heat lamp?

Unplug it and put it in storage.
They didn't need it at all.
You can actually stress them more and slow down acclimation by leaving it on over night.

i know they are hardy and we will be removing the brooder soon and letting them have the whole coop over the next week or 2.

Remove it now.
They will be fine having full access to their coop/run setup. You may need to teach them to go in the coop and roost for several nights but they'll get the hang of it.

 

[OnlySympathy]

just remove the heat. They would have been fine without it after 4 weeks. I would also just give them full access to the coop and run. They are plenty old enough to start treating them as adults rather than chicks.

 

[nuthatched]

X3 it could have been removed weeks ago.

 

[Ridgerunner]

i have 10 feathered out bantam ee chicks!
they are around 6 weeks now the morning temps outside have been approaching frosts (~5c) (41 F)

I agree. Take the heat lamp down and store it. They will be fine. At that age they do not need acclimation to those temperatures.

 

[AnneGirlGG]

What a cutie! I agree that they no longer need their heat. My oldest group was totally off the heat by 4 weeks.

 

[vivarium]

wow so all of these infographics i'm seeing online are wrong??? this is good to know lol. first time chicken mom, here.

the overnights in august got VERY cold (5 celcius) right after weeks of heatwaves, so didn't remove the heat before now because i thought the shift from 25c to 5c would have been too drastic!

 

[AnneGirlGG]

wow so all of these infographics i'm seeing online are wrong??? this is good to know lol. first time chicken mom, here.

the overnights in august got VERY cold (5 celcius) right after weeks of heatwaves, so didn't remove the heat before now because i thought the shift from 25c to 5c would have been too drastic!

I definitely don't want to say "wrong," partly because I'm so new to chickens myself that I don't think I have any place to say that since I don't nearly enough. But I will say that based on books and things I'd read, I was expecting that my chicks would need to be in a brooder, with heat, for like 6 to 8 weeks. Not even kinda, lol.

I got on here with some initial questions, and the kind folks here helped me see the truth.

 

[kattabelly]

wow so all of these infographics i'm seeing online are wrong??? this is good to know lol. first time chicken mom, here.

the overnights in august got VERY cold (5 celcius) right after weeks of heatwaves, so didn't remove the heat before now because i thought the shift from 25c to 5c would have been too drastic!

The whole 5 degrees (F) cooler each week thing is very conservative. Look at how broody hens raise chicks - they're outside from a few days old and just go back under mum when they need to warm up. Chicks have to be able to GET warm, they don't have to always BE in the warm. They don't need to be very old at all to get by with just their own body heat, if there are more than a few of them to snuggle together in a dry, draught-free place with a bit of insulation around them.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Chicks have to be able to GET warm, they don't have to always BE in the warm. They don't need to be very old at all to get by with just their own body heat, if there are more than a few of them to snuggle together in a dry, draught-free place with a bit of insulation around them.

^^^ THIS!!! Remember, chicks are BIRDS. if your local wild bird population can survive those temps, so can your chickens.