when can chicks move outside?

[angelobutter]

Hello,
I am sure this question has been answered on here before but I can't seem to find it. I have some chicks that were born 2/20 so they are not quite a month old yet, but they are getting big and stinky and I would like to move them outside pretty soon. my problem is I live in NH and it is still freezing during the day here, so obviously much colder at night. I can give them a heat lamp or a brinsea chick brooder (thingie whatever they are called) and close their coop up at night but will it still be too cold? i have a terrible fear of waking up to little chicks-icicles
below is a pic of the coop they will be temporarily using until they are big enough for the big coop. It is 4x4. the one on the left- as you can see it closes up all the way so it will stay warmer than something with a lot of openings. thanks for the advice.

 

[heronz]

I would wait a couple of weeks.
I live in N.H. as well and it's still just so cold.
I know it can get hard to keep up with the mess but hang in there if you can.
Maybe it will warm up next week so they can go out sooner.

 

[angelobutter]

ok sounds like a plan... a stinky/messy chick plan but you gotta do what you gotta do lol. good thing they are cute.

 

[Kitty990]

i live in Colorado, normally we wont move the chicks out side until they are fully feathered. that's about 6-8 weeks of age but we placed a heat lamp inside the coop. in the winter its all 24/7 but we turn it off in the summer unless the temp drops too low.

how many chicks do you have?

we clean the brooder box (that's in the living room) ever three days to void the smell. but you can set your own schedule. - do you have a carport? a lot of people keep their chicks in their garages until their about 6-8 weeks then move them to the coop.

 

[Cheep Chic]

I have 5 one month old babies,(2 Bufs, 2 RIR, 1 NJG) I keep them in the guest bath at night and in their pen during the day as long as it's above 65. The bath is lined in straw and pine shavings and I change it every 2 days. But they are getting BIG and cabin fever is setting in if I don't get them outside pronto. It gets down to around 38 degrees at night, isn't that too cold for them to be outside? Their hen house has nice nesting boxes lined in straw.
worried mama.

 

[angelobutter]

i live in Colorado, normally we wont move the chicks out side until they are fully feathered. that's about 6-8 weeks of age but we placed a heat lamp inside the coop. in the winter its all 24/7 but we turn it off in the summer unless the temp drops too low.

how many chicks do you have?

we clean the brooder box (that's in the living room) ever three days to void the smell. but you can set your own schedule. - do you have a carport? a lot of people keep their chicks in their garages until their about 6-8 weeks then move them to the coop.

right now it is 16 chicks. I have more coming though - both incubators are full! I clean their box out pretty often - more than the smell it is the tiny "fluffs" that fly around the room when i sweep lol can't get rid of them.like dandelions I have a garage- but it is super full- we finally got all of out "stuff" out of my trailer from moving but we were lazy and just loaded it into the garage so there isn't much spare room- maybe i can push some furniture around and make some though.

 

[SD Bird Lady]

I moved my 13 babies out to the coop at 5 weeks. They had a heat lamp and we had 25*F days -10*F nights for the first week or so. As long as they have a heat lamp they should be fine as long as there are atleast 5 or 6 to huddle. My big problem was their freezing water since the cord that was on the waterer had to be used for the heat lamp. I had to change water 3 times a day.

I have a 8x10 plywood garden shed, uninsulated, with 5 adults birds and Deep Litter Method. The chicks were in a large dog crate to keep them seperated from the adults and also so they couldn't get stuck somewhere away from heat.

They are now 7 weeks old and we have been having yo-yo weather so when it is above freezing they play ouside when it isn't they stay inside. I cut off day time heat at 6 weeks and at about 6.5 they had no heat at all. Generally if there is no wind they will go out until about 20*F with wind it varies.

They were all LF chicks Brahma, Production Red, & EE. 2 Ducks also got kicked out then too but they are outside rain, snow. sleet, or wind lol

 

[darkside1]

Im wondering the same thing. I put my 21 day old Rhode island reds out in the closed off coop today. There are 24 of them and i have a 250 watt brooder lamp on them. I checked on them about 40 min ago and they were huddled tight. I grabbed a heating pad and wrapped it in a towel and duct taped it in a plastic feed bag (to keep the urine out) and buried it about an inch under their bedding. Hopefully the combo of the light and heating pad will get them through the 26-28 degree night. Any thoughts on the heating pad use?

 

[Nigellas]

If you give them heat you can put them outside.

 

[smallhen]

We live in the South (Central Alabama) and it's so much warmer than where you are located. We moved our chicks out right at 5 weeks. They were fully feathered and did fine. No heat lamp, but the nighttime temps barely got to freezing. They huddle together at night have hopped right up and started to eat when I check on them in the morning. Good luck, hope it warms up soon for you.