When can Frizzles go out to coop? ADVICE Please!

[ADozenGirlz]

I have three Cochin Frizzle Bantams that I got at 6 weeks old and are now 13 weeks old. We live in Connecticut where the temperatures have been mostly in the 30s for the past few weeks. The Frizzles are in our basement in a brooder with a heat lamp over the top of it to keep it around 70 degrees or so inside the brooder box. The unheated basement stays a pretty consistent 56-58 degrees. I keep the coop around 40 degrees with a combination of a red heat lamp and opening windows.

I'm wondering when I can introduce the Frizzles to the rest of the flock- what does the temperature outside need to be in order for them to do well? Any suggestions for HOW you introduce new chickens to your existing flock would be appreciated too (less so suggestions for how you think you WOULD DO IT but never have. I'd love to gt real life experience please). Thanks a million!

this photo was taken on 1/8/10 and they are much bigger now!

 

[chubbydog811]

I'm up in NH.
Last year with my Frizzles, I waited until it was staying around 40* at night to put them out.
I think that was the last week of march/beginning of April, and they hatched in Feb. of the same year.
They did pretty well - they didnt have an insulated coop at the time, just a very large guinea pig crate, and they were in the isle of the horse barn, so it was pretty drafty.

Anyway, hope that helps!


Forgot to add- when I introduce new chickens, I try to slip them in the coop around the time it is getting dark. That way all the other chickens are roosting, and getting ready for night! I have done that for all of my mixing, and I have only had 1 get beaten on (though they were roosters, not the hens).

 

[ADozenGirlz]

Quote:
Thanks, it does help. Our coop is insulated and heated a little, so if yours did well in those temperatures, I think I'll get those dusty little fluffy butts out of my basement as soon as the temperatures stay in the 40s at night too!

 

[chubbydog811]

Awesome! They are wicked cute by the way! (also added something to my above post about mixing in case you didnt see it)

 

[ADozenGirlz]

Quote:
I DID miss that! It's hard to be thorough doing anything with a 2yr old and a 4yr old climbing on each arm! Good advice, I have read that several places before. Sounds right to me! Thanks again!

 

[evonne]

not sure about when to move them, but if they are frizzle and not frazzle, i would assume as long as they are fully feathered.. which should be now... frazzles (2 frizzle genes) have brittle feathers so sometimes their feathering isn't as thick due to breakage...

as far as integrating.. what i've done with..4 or 5 sets of new chicks in the 10 months i've had chickens.... usually about 4-6 weeks i take the rabbit cage they've been in the house in and start putting it outside during the day where th other chcikens hang out.. a few hours for a day or two increasing to all day... then after it's been all day a couple days, i let them out during the day when i can watch the older hens for pecking.. i don't discourage natural pecking order, i jsut make sure noone's doing physical damage...
if that seems to be going well after a few hours, i leave them be and check periodically through the day...
the first few nights of them being with the others, mine have always returned to their cage instead of the copp with the big birds... i just wait till they're settled and then plop them in on the perch... most catch on after a few days....
then you have the onery ones that come knock on the door until you take them out and put them in...