Winter baby chicks?

[RanDen063095]

Our local feed store is going to have baby chicks all winter long. I am wanting to get more by the middle of August. I live in central Oklahoma where weather is iffy. I have learned through trial & error I have much better luck with keeping my babies in the coop in a dog crate till they are about 3 weeks old. I haven't lost a 1 since I started doing it this way. My question is how old do they need to be in order for them to not freeze?

 

[Folly's place]

With a brooder plate, things should be good anytime during moderate weather, and after three or four weeks in winter. Probably. With heated water too.
Mary

 

[azygous]

Two things you need to be aware of when preparing to move chicks into a coop without heat when the temps will be getting down below freezing. One is amount of feathering and the other is proper acclimation. If you ignore one, your chicks could face problems in extreme weather.

To be sure your chicks can handle the cold without heat, be sure they are completely feathered and no patches of down remain. Then gradually acclimatize them to the cold by exposing them to gradually cooler temps.

Of course, very young baby chicks do just fine in very cold weather as long as they have a heat source under which to warm themselves as they lose body heat through their down. I've raised baby chicks from one day old under the heating pad system outdoors in below freezing temps and they did spectacularly. Brooded outdoors, baby chicks are automatically acclimatized, and generally handle cold well as soon as they are feathered out around four to six weeks, and they have usually weaned themselves off heat by that time.