when do you move the chicks outside

[tempestinkansas]

Ok so my chicks are a month old I think they need more room than in the kiddy pool they are in. I have 30. It is starting to warm up outside but I dont wont them to get too cold, my coop is designed like a 1920's style coop as I have built a turn of the centery teaching farm and garden. I know they need to be seperated from the roosters that were donated earlyer this year they can live with the goats for now. I have 2 brooder lamps that i can put next to each other close to the ground. i need opinions if it is too ealry or not
steven

 

[dsqard]

If you are going to have the lamps on for them they should be OK as long as where you are putting them is not too drafty. I am assuming that they are not completely feathered out yet. It also depends on how cold it is getting at night where you live. If it is still getting down to and below freezing, I would be hesitant to move them outside unless you can keep where they are beeing kept warm. What temperature are you keeping them at now?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't know where you are or what you mean by cold. That can make a difference.

At a month old they should be real closed to feathered out. Most chicks are fully feathered out at 4 to 5 weeks. After that, in theory, they don't need any supplemental heat. If yours have been kept where they are always warm, I'd wean them just a bit. Maybe set up a heat lamp in their area where they can go to it if they want to. Maybe put a shallow draft guard inthe area so when they are laying down they are out of any possible drafts. But make that area is big enough that they can move away from the lamp if they get too hot. And be very sure to throw that clamp away and use wire or something that will very securely support that lamp. You do not want to cause a fire and those clamps are extremely unreliable.

With 30 chicks, they will sleep in a pile and keep each other warm. That by itself makes a big difference.

I start mine in a brooder in the coop from Day 1. I keep one area warm but leave the rest of the brooder to cool off quite a bit cooler than the recommended temperatures. They spend a lot of time in the cooler areas and go back to the heat when they need it. I take the brooder and heat away at 4 to 5 weeks, but that is during a warmer part of the year. It does get down to the upper 40's, but not down to the 30's when I do that.

 

[tempestinkansas]

today it is 50 degrees but the wind is 15mph with gusts upward of 30. I am in south central kansas. I am hesatent on moving them yet. they have flight feathers and are preaty well featherd out the front of the coop faces east and is kinda drafty on that side the rest of it is built solid but not the front door:

 

[teach1rusl]

Even if it's with straw bales, boards, whatever, put a barrier up where they have a draft free zone. Have they been off the lamp where they are now?

 

[tempestinkansas]

they are still using the lamp. they are in the tool room at the museum in a kiddy pool they do spend alot of there time under the lamp still, I just went back and checked on them and they are all asleep around the lamp so i think i will weight on for a nother week or so

 

[teach1rusl]

Unless the tool room has no heat whatsoever (meaning is about the same temp as outdoors), I'd go ahead and take them off the lamp while they're still inside. You want the transition to be somewhat gradual, however you can accomodate that. What you don't want to do is go from being heat lamp dependent straight to cool/cold outdoor temps.

 

[rarely bored]

Mine are about twelve days old, and I'm putting them outside in the daytime and bringing them in at night. But it has been in the 60's during the day. To make a little solar heater for them, I overturned a plastic box in a sunny spot, so if they get cold they can scot in under the box and warm up. They rarely use it.
I agree with the idea to make them a draft free area, I suspect they would be fine in the daytime and then give them a source of heat for the night time, for a couple of nights.