e72071
Songster
I've seen many of your posts and you are very in tune with raising chickens. I have 8 & 9 week old chicks that are mostly feathered (1 or 2 may still be feathering). Temps are still hovering around high twenties, low thirties at night. I plan on exposing them to the outdoors today and our other 4 girls. Do you think it's safe to move them outside? I truly can't take the smell anymore and they are just growing so much they need their space.Here are mine at 3 days.....their brooder pen was out in the run and it was 25 degrees. I think it depends a lot on your setup and how early you begin to acclimate them. Chicks who have had continuous heat (and light 24/7) will absolutely need a chance to get used to colder temperatures and natural day/night cycles, and that always needs to be taken very seriously. I have now raised 6 batches of chicks outside in the run with just a heating pad cave, in full view of the adults, and even just a day or so out of the incubator. I can honestly say I will never ever brood chicks any other way. Never lost one, never had one get sick, and never had an adult injure one. But again, for chicks not raised this way from the get-go, acclimation is a must! [COLOR=B42000] [/COLOR] Just a few days old, and nighttime temps in the teens and twenties, with some snowstorms tossed in for good measure. They know when they should stop exploring and go get warmed up, just as they do with a broody hen. This is a batch of chicks from last year. Same chicks out with the adults in the yard at only 4 weeks old. We had total integration by then,and notice how fully feathered and robust they are in size. By then it was warming up outside - spring in Northern Wyoming was finally arriving and our nighttime temps were hovering in the upper 30s, low 40s. This is a batch of this year's chicks. In the video you'll notice I refer to one little White Orpington chick who "almost died." That little stinker found the tiniest gap (immediately repaired, by the way) and was found lifeless behind the feeder in the main run hours later. I thought sure she was dead...she certainly seemed to be. Her eyes were closed, her legs and neck stretched out,and she was stiff and ice cold.The adults never bothered her little body. Once I thought I detected a bit of life I snatched her up, ran in the house with her, and stuck her in the incubator with some eggs due to hatch later in the week. She revived, survived, and was back out in the run with the others the very next day. She is a beautiful, big Orpington who is now beginning to be one of my best layers. We named her Phoenix. Just goes to show you that ya never know. I've read stories on here over and over again about chicks who have done the exact same thing, even kept in a brooder indoors under a heat lamp. It just depends on what they have been acclimated to, and how strong they are.