what age do you put your chicks outside

[KuroKitsune]

my 6 month old pullets went out when they were 6 weeks as they were fully feathered and it was nice temp wise then but then it got chilly so they got a heat lamp in their coop at night for a few weeks.


the 15 white leghorns i'm raising for a friend went out at 4 weeks as it was june and very nice warm out and they have done great.



so i think it depends on the temp outside and the birds having all or nearly all of their feathers

 

[BarneyNCyndi]

This is our first post so i guess we are new eggs. We have a couple rhode island reds a couple americanas and a buff orpington. We just finished their coop. Except for paint and shingles on roof. But they are are moved in a happy with the new digs. More room than the brooder. And likewise more room in our dining room. Yay! They are 8 and 9 weeks old, fully feathered and someones voice is changing from peep peep peep to peep cluck peep. Been working on our run today, will finish tomorrow and they can get out and get more range time without us fetching chickens and transporting them in a box to a lttle run we made up when we first started.

 

[gritsar]

This is our first post so i guess we are new eggs. We have a couple rhode island reds a couple americanas and a buff orpington. We just finished their coop. Except for paint and shingles on roof. But they are are moved in a happy with the new digs. More room than the brooder. And likewise more room in our dining room. Yay! They are 8 and 9 weeks old, fully feathered and someones voice is changing from peep peep peep to peep cluck peep. Been working on our run today, will finish tomorrow and they can get out and get more range time without us fetching chickens and transporting them in a box to a lttle run we made up when we first started.

I have a new batch of chicks, 9 Breda and 2 bantam cochins - all in the 2 1/2 to 3 week old range.
Six of the Breda were hatched by a hen, so have never been in the house. I took them from their mama 3 days ago because I needed to move the house chicks out of the house and combine the two batches.
The other five chicks, 3 Breda and the two bantam cochins, I moved out at slightly less than two weeks old.
All are in a big brooder section of one of my coops. They have a heat lamp, 100 watt bulb, they rarely use it.
All are doing fine. Our nightime temps. have been in the low 70s and will drop down into the 60s starting tonight.

 

[BarneyNCyndi]

Here in washington state the temps are dropping into the 50s soon it'll be in the forties. DW wans the insulation in the windows and a heat light on. Enough to keep it over 60 i am thinkiing that they would be fine down to the low fifties. Since can huddle together and there are no drafts. The youngest is7 weeks.

 

[DianaMallory]

Mine went into the coop at 4 weeks. But did not get outside in the run until they were 6 weeks. I had them weened from the light at 4 weeks. The temps were good here until I moved them outside then we hit a cold spell and the temps dropped to the 50's at night. I just closed up all the windows and they did fine. They had no drafts. Next round of chicks will be brooded in the coop! But that is long way off. Next spring thinking about getting meat birds.

 

[BarneyNCyndi]

Oh by the way thank you gritsar for the welcome.

 

[Mauka]

 I usually give them the heat lamp 24/7 for the first few days, then start dropping it down, Week 2 the lamp is off during the day but on at night. ..Start of week 3 they are outside all day in a predator proof A frame.  I put a little cardboard box with a small hole cut into it with lots of shavings so they can cuddle up. I also tarp the entire A frame at night to keep the drafts out. End of week 3 they are outside for good.  They have always feathered up much faster than if I have them in the house. I live in the Australian tropics (70 at night), so get why in the winter you would be more hesitant to let them out.

I don't quite understand letting a fully feathered chicken stay inside the house with a heat lamp on it. There is a natural progression chicks go through, leaving the Hen gradually. Rule of thumb is that if you do not see a fully feathered chick sitting underneath its mother,(even in winter) you are probably babying it.  I love my chickens, but at the end of the day they are still animals. I could not begin to imagine why someone would allow chickens to run around the inside of their home pooping everywhere.... Maybe I totally misunderstood the above quoted post?

I don't think you misread the post. I hate having my chicks in a box in our house-I clean it twice a day and they are SO messy and smelly. I couldn't imagine letting them run around our house. Yuck!

 

[arkwelded]

Our chickletes are all tucked in the roost. They are about 5 weeks and doing great with temps down to 30- 40 at night

 

[sueandthe6]

I have two cochin chicks that are about 7 weeks. They are fully feathered and fiends in the dog crate i am using in my kitchen. I really woudl like to put them out but our nights are getting down into the 40s and this weekend they talked about a possible frost. I have no electric available in my coop. I have an actual 4 x 4 wooden "house" that opens to a 20 ft by 30 ft chain link "run". I want to put the chicks out but not only am I worried about them integrating- but also the temps. I have put them outside in a wire dog crate without a bottom several times over the last two weeks to get them used to outdoors but am unsure when to put them out "for good".

 

[gritsar]

I have two cochin chicks that are about 7 weeks. They are fully feathered and fiends in the dog crate i am using in my kitchen. I really woudl like to put them out but our nights are getting down into the 40s and this weekend they talked about a possible frost. I have no electric available in my coop. I have an actual 4 x 4 wooden "house" that opens to a 20 ft by 30 ft chain link "run". I want to put the chicks out but not only am I worried about them integrating- but also the temps. I have put them outside in a wire dog crate without a bottom several times over the last two weeks to get them used to outdoors but am unsure when to put them out "for good".

Now would be a good time. The thing is, you want to make sure of a few things - that you don't shock their system by suddenly going from indoor (house temps.) to much lower outdoor temps. How you do this will vary, you'll have to think outside the box to come up with a way to gradually introduce them to the lower temps. They will need some protection from the older birds until the older ones are used to their new coopmates. A wire dog crate works well for this, so long as they can't slip through the bars. The part that worries me the most about your information is the chain link. Young chicks can slip through smaller holes than you would think.

Yesterday I made some changes that allowed me to have all my birds in their permanent placement in the coops. Two standard birds, a docile (read:scaredy cat) cockerel and a LF brahma pullet that's been a bully to chicks, went into the brahma coop at bedtime. The cockerel screamed his head off for hours out of fear, no one was hurting him and my old brahma hens are pretty used to newcomers. Now that they are out of the larger coop (where the pullet picked on younger birds) I opened the gate between the baby bird section and the section where three bantam birds live. One of the bantams is a bully, but with 12 LF chicks she's overwhelmed; she can't pick on them all, so she's given up on picking on anybody.

Read your birds to know what's going to work and what is not. Observing them all together will tell you what you need to do next. I know that's not of much help, but it really does depend on the individual situation.