will taking the light out cold turkey make for cold chickie?

[Rooneytune]

My girls are 5 weeks old and are locked up in their big girl coop... Last night was the first night out and they seemed to do fine! I didn;t have their light on for the day (50-60s today).. it is supposed to be down in the 30-40s tonight... should I turn on their heat light or should I let them tough it out?

 

[Lbrad7]

If they are fully feathered they should be fine but I still like to raise the light a little higher and higher everyday for a week or so to kind of get them used to the chill.

 

[nanawendy]

Are they feathered out? They should be ok if they are. But if they have a hard time going in to roost... I might leave the light on for a couple hours until they get situated.

 

[Rooneytune]

they are don;t have free time in the run yet (as it is not constructed) last night the ignored my carefully crafted roosts and slept in the nesting box... I like the idea of phasing out the light...my hubby is not jazzed with the power bill

 

[Lbrad7]

30 degrees is pretty cold for a 5 week old chick to take cold turkey but as long as they are fully feathered I wouldnt sweat it too much. If not I would keep the heat on them until they are. You dont have to use a 200 watt heat lamp...a 75 watt bulb would work fine at their age for a couple days then no heat at all.