When can the chicks go outside?

[Coastal Chick]

Great idea. Mine are all cozy in the dark now. Will put the light on later. Nice chatting with you. Good night.

 

[Pinkaboo]

Night

 

[jessietacos]

You can let the chicks have outside sessions starting at 2 weeks old, but I wouldn't let them out 24/7 until they're 6 weeks.

 

[Coastal Chick]

They did very well last night. I think the light was a good idea. And I blocked most of the breeze. I will probably keep them in their cage like this for another 2 wks and bring them in if the temp drops below 70 at night. I am hoping the run will be finished in a day or 2 and I can put them in there for the day if the weather stays nice. Thanks.

 

[CityCAChicken]

Here in northern California, the outdoor temperature is between 95 to 105 degrees during the day right now but the weather drops to the 70's at night. I went to a feed store yesterday. This particular feed store keeps all of their chickens out back outside of the store. The feed store is owned by a local vet and the vet has an office that connects to the feed store. The staffs are pretty knowledgeable (not your common feed store is my point). I bought a few baby Danish Leghorn chicks from them yesterday.

The feed store had them with no light which had me ask - "You know if you read online, it all says they need a heat lamp until they are few weeks old. No light?" Guy laughed ..."its 100 degrees outside!"

All of the chicks did look more than fine. I threw my two week old chicks outside last night with no light and they did just fine this morning. I am starting to wonder if the "must use a lamp/keep them indoors" is not true for summer when the air temperature is in the 90's/100's.

Either way – I have 2 week old chicks outside with no heat lamp and they seem to love life!

 

[msw1208]

My baby girls are 4 weeks old now and have been enjoying the Bay Area sunshine for the last two weeks. Last night we finished the coup and installed our heat lamp in the highest part of the coup. We checked the girls throughout the night and this morning. Since the heat lamp was so high, I was worried that they would get too cold, but they did great. It was about 55 degrees last night.

 

[hugz4all4]

I have 3 6 week old red cross and 3 5 week old Australorps that I started out in their pen yesterday, its fully enclosed 8 foot high attached to their coop.. They love it!! My 6 two weekers wont be going out for awhile yet.

 

[hugz4all4]

Oh and mine are locked up in their coop at night.. they are only allowed in the run during days, they will never free range.. Busy road, heavy predator area.

 

[ChickInDelight]

I put my 4 weekers outside. I hang a heat lamp at night. On cooler nights, I put a tarp over top. They are SO messy!

 

[eggs and chicks]

mine stay outside now we probably put them out there when they were younger than those guys we have 6 of them but we also kept 10 ducklings with them and i think it helped them stay warm