Will They Be Okay?

[junebuggena]

They will be fine. 9 eight week old chicks and 7 hens in a 8x8 coop will produce enough body heat to keep everyone nice and warm.

 

[Blooie]

We are headed for a nasty spring cold front here in Eastern Montana! Low Sunday night will be 31 degrees. Should I supplement with a little heat for my 9 chicks? They sleep on the floor of my 8x8 coop with 7 hens. The youngest are 8 weeks and have been off heat for two weeks. Should I be worried?

I'm in Northern Wyoming, just a few miles south of the Montana border, and we're getting the same cold front. I have 3 groups of chicks..one group of 11 is 10 weeks old today and the four I added to their brooder with them are 9 weeks old. The third group of 8 is 4 weeks old. They have all been brooded outside in the run - not the coop, but the run - in an open wire brooder pen using nothing more than a heating pad over a straw cave. They are thriving! The first group, the 9 and 10 weekers, were evicted from the brooder when they were 4 and 5 weeks old to make way for the new chicks. So they have been free of supplemental heat and fully integrated with the adult chickens in the coop and the run since they were little. The heating pad in the Tinys pen is now turned down to 2, and they barely use it anymore.

The first week the first group of chicks went out it was in the teens and low twenties at night. They did fine. Lows were in the 20s when the Tinys came. They are doing fine also. So I think yours will do just great. They may snuggle down together in a pile at night, like my older chicks did for the first week they were evicted, but now they go into the coop and roost for the night. Yours are plenty old enough, and have already been weaned off supplemental heat, so you should be good to go.

 

[cicknmama]

I'm in Northern Wyoming, just a few miles south of the Montana border, and we're getting the same cold front.  I have 3 groups of chicks..one group of 11 is 10 weeks old today and the four I added to their brooder with them are 9 weeks old. The third group of 8 is 4 weeks old. They have all been brooded outside in the run - not the coop, but the run - in an open wire brooder pen using nothing more than a heating pad over a straw cave.  They are thriving!  The first group, the 9 and 10 weekers, were evicted from the brooder when they were 4 and 5 weeks old to make way for the new chicks. So they have been free of supplemental heat and fully integrated with the adult chickens in the coop and the run since they were little.  The heating pad in the Tinys pen is now turned down to 2, and they barely use it anymore. 

The first week the first group of chicks went out it was in the teens and low twenties at night.  They did fine.  Lows were in the 20s when the Tinys came.  They are doing fine also.  So I think yours will do just great.  They may snuggle down together in a pile at night, like my older chicks did for the first week they were evicted, but now they go into the coop and roost for the night.  Yours are plenty old enough, and have already been weaned off supplemental heat, so you should be good to go.

I'm in Hardin! Are you b in Sheridan? Thanks for the info. I'm a newbie to raising chicks so I'm probably a little overprotective. ..ok...alot!!! Im amazed at how hardy these little guys are! We are still n putting the finishing touches on our new coop and don't have a covered run yet. They are in a huge fenced yard and I made a makeshift run just for the chicks. Thanks for the reassurance, much appreciated! Stay warm!