When can they move to the coop?

[Lonomakana]

It doesn't get below 70 degrees where I live, but there is a lot of wind. I have a coop that blocks the main wind, but there is no avoiding a draft. How old should my chicks be before they move outside? Fully feathered out?

 

[horsejody]

Maybe when they are 5 weeks or so you could put them out for a little while each day and bring them in at night until they are bigger.

 

[MissChessy]

They need to be 5-8 weeks old which is the age they are fully feathered out. I put mine out when they were 5 weeks old, but I'm here in Texas and it gets warm here. We've had some pretty cold days and they are doing really well.

 

[ebonykawai]

You could set cardboard up or something inside the coop to help with drafts. I'm putting my 3-weekers out shortly.

 

[Lonomakana]

Thanks. My chicks get here in the middle of May. I can't wait. Its always warm here, but there should be less rain by then.

 

[gritsar]

My chicks were hatched a week ago today. They will be in their coop by this time next week; with a draft guard in the center of it and of course, their heat lamps. I was hoping our current set-up, a plastic wading pool with a draft guard around the outside of it, would last them until age 3 weeks or so. It didn't. When I went to check on them this morning, I found that one of them had scaled the wall of the pool and was running around inside the draft guard. The others quickly followed suit. So it looks like I'll be doing alot of chasing between now and the time they move into the coop.
Mine have been "outside" since day one; in a heated shed.