When to put hens back outdoors

[Titania207]

Hi - I had to bring one of my girls as she had a cut and perhaps frostbite on her leg. I brought in a second hen to keep her company. They are adults, barred rocks. It’s frigid here now even for Maine these days. What temperature does it need to be before I put them out in the coop again? The house is 50-60. It’s below zero outside most nights. Will my other hens forget these rwo in two months meaning I’ll need to reintroduce them slowly? (They’ve all grown up together)

 

[nuthatched]

Put them out mid morning so they can ride out the day.

 

[rosemarythyme]

If they've been apart 2 months yes you will need to reintroduce them as if they were new.

 

[Justagalwithchicks]

Do you have an unheated garage to move them to for couple days then outside?.To help acclimate them with the colder temps outside.

 

[Mrs. K]

Being raised together has almost no influence on adult birds. 2 months apart- they will be strangers. A lot depends on your set up, post some pictures.

 

[Titania207]

I’ll be putting them back into the coop on Monday — with a total of 4 nights indoors— as it’ll be in the 30s during the day. Hopefully it will be ok and it won’t be too shocking - assume the other birds won’t have forgotten in this amount of time. The coop isn’t heated but it’s piled with snow. I’m getting a different Warner coop before next winter.

 

[SamLockwood]

Hi - I had to bring one of my girls as she had a cut and perhaps frostbite on her leg. I brought in a second hen to keep her company. They are adults, barred rocks. It’s frigid here now even for Maine these days. What temperature does it need to be before I put them out in the coop again? The house is 50-60. It’s below zero outside most nights. Will my other hens forget these rwo in two months meaning I’ll need to reintroduce them slowly? (They’ve all grown up together)

It depends on how well set-up the coop is: if it's dry, free of drafts, and decently ventilated anything above zero is probably OK. We often get temps in the teens or single digits where I am and my birds have zero problems due to the cold beyond the rare bit of very minor comb frost-bite on some of the roosters.

If you do keep them separated for several weeks or months yes, you'll need to re-integrate them. It's not so much that they forget each other but they'll fall out of the main flocks pecking-order and have to re-establish themselves and that can be just as tricky as introducing new birds.

 

[Titania207]

Thanks - I put them out this afternoon when it was 30 degrees (a heat wave) and there were no issues. Just gave them scratch to warm up for nightfall.