My chicks are a month old now and have most of their feathers. They outgrew their brooder in short order and the only place I could put them was in my 6' diameter garden tub in the master bath. They are flying out of that now! I live near Brooksville, Fl in the West Central part of the state. The Weather Channel says it will be in the upper 50's at night here for a while. The coop outside is weather-tight and I have a really thick layer of wood shavings in there. Would it be alright to move them outside now? This is my first experience raising chickens. I have 10 pullets- 6 Buff Orpingtons, 2 Rhode Island Reds, and 2 Americaunas. I notched the temp down by steps since I've had them and now the heat lamp is off. There's no electricity in the coop presently, but I can run an extension cord out there if necessary. Any advice for this newbie?
I would go ahead and move them into the coop. I moved mine about that age. You might want to build a cardboard surround to put them in for a little while longer and that mostly for heat at night. But they should be O.K. Plenty of shavings, food, and water. If it gets colder at night definitely run cord for heat lamp. They'll love the extra room though.
pipit, I agree with pegbo and think as long as you can place a heat lamp in there for them it would work fine. bigzio
I have raised mine outside in the coup with a light since they arrived and all are doing well. We ran an extension cord out there and hung a heat lamp with a reflector on a pully system. So far so good. Oh, we are in the Clermont area, so we are very close to you and have similar weather.
Pipit, I had to move mine out to the coop earlier than expected too, and they are doing fine. I ran out of places to keep moving them to! I had the cardboard barrier in there for a couple of days, along with shavings & some straw on top of that. Somehow one of their waterers got tipped and soaked the shavings, saturating the cardboard barrier. So, it was like what the heck, have the whole dern house! They've been out there for almost a week, with a heat lamp, and they are loving it. A few of them have even learned how to hop up on the lowest perch already. I do move the lamp lower at night and then raise it up a bit in the daytime, because we're having 40-45 degree temp swings between day and night here.
I'm in mid Georgia and moved my chicks outside after 2 days (March 7th). They are now 16 days old. I do have 2 heat lamps (in case one bulb goes out) and at night I pretty much enclose the area. They love it!! Even though it's cool at night, they gather round the heat (but not crowded, just lounging and cozying together) The temp has been ranging at night from high 20's to low 50's. During the day I turn off the heat lamps. (mid-upper 70's). If you are in Florida they need to be outside!!!