When should my chicks go outside?

[Gigiintheforest]

My chicks are six weeks old today and I'm moving them into the large coop inside. When can I let them safely into their run? I think I'm just a bit nervous. Their run is fence with a 7 foot fence, sunk into the ground 18 inches and covered with cable wire and chicken wire. It should be safe...

 

[Tenmore]

I did the inside thing last year.......never again. I built a brooder coop mine have been outside all but the first week. They are going on 8 weeks now. My coop is built so it sits about 3 ft off the ground. At about 4 weeks I gave the access to the run under the coop through a drop door in the floor. They have done great I just had to put 2 heat lamps in the at first for the colder nights. ........if they are moving.g into their own coop I say go for it. If moving in with an established flock I'd say wait another 4-6 weeks. Good luck

 

[Domestic_goddess]

I have done both, but I have to say...I prefer the outside brooder. Less mess all around!

 

[blueberrychickens]

I just finally integrated my 7 week olds in to the rest of the flock. Last night was their first night outside. They all did fine. @ 6 weeks, your's should be fine also. Have you got other chickens too or just the 6 week olds?

 

[ChickenLover WI]

I put my baby chicks in there coop on Thursday afternoon and at 11pm went out there and brought them back inside for the night. They would have been fine but I kept worrying about them lol. There going back outside right now this morning and they love it in there coop. I did put there heat lamp on in the evening and kept looking at the temp for them. My baby's were born on March 11 for on of them and the others on March 17th. Mine are all the polish kinds right now. I put them in there with my 3 buff orps girls that are 16 weeks old and 1 black star at 16 weeks old and they all love each other. I have very loving chicken besides my EE chicken she tried to kill my buffs and my black star. I really don't no why the buff and black star and Easter chicken all came from same place where this guy sold them to me. EE is nice to people but not other chickens. I might have to just find her a home maybe. I have never seen a hen so made before and she acted like a huge mean turkey gone mad pecking and pulling out feathers and scratching, the buffs and black star were screaming in fear and jumped onto me asking me to take them out of there. My poor girls were so scared. I felt so bad but everyone kept telling me to let them try them together and they might peck a little at first and be done but is was nothing like that. So EE chicken is in her own coop by all by herself still! She won. I wouldn't keep them in there run right now. I would let them get used to there coop for the fist week and then slowly each day like start with 1 hour first out and put them back in. Each day for a week keep adding a hour a day. That's how I am doing it just like I would for my horse to start him on fresh green grass from being on hay all winter long. Some people might do it different or tell you different. Just listen to everyone and then choose what you may feel is right for them. My husband laughed at me for bringing me back in last night and said they would have been ok Nicole! I was not ok with that not seeing them and not knowing if they would get to cold in the late night. I wanted to be able to have a good rest of sleep knowing they were ok. Wish You the very best luck!

 

[ButchGood]

I put mine out at 3 weeks old. Tomorrow they will be 5 weeks old. Last night all but 4 out of 16 went into the coop on their own.
My standard answer to this question,"When should my chicks go outside" is.....As Soon As Possible.

 

[nicolets]

Yes, it should be safe. And 6 months is definitely old enough to be outside.

 

[Gigiintheforest]

Thanks everyone. Having them inside is definitely a mess but it's been nice because the grandkids can easily play with them with our supervision. But the mess is HUGE and I can hardly wait to move them out. Anyway, I'm glad I didn't move them yesterday as we had a tornado (Norman, OK) which hit town. We were hiding in the closet but luckily it didn't make it out to the lake. I would have been worried to death if the chicks were outside (not that it would have made much difference if we had been hit - LOL). Anyway, more serious storms predicted for today so I think chicks will go out the middle of next week. Thanks so much for your help. I don't know what I would do without this forum.