I have some 5 week old Barred Rock chicks which are currently living in a Rubbermaid crate in the house. How will I know when they have enough feathers to move outside? I've never added chicks to my flock in the winter before. We don't ever get severely cold winters, but it does drop below freezing fairly often at night. (To me that's cold!)
Mature Feathering
Hi Porkpal: I'm sure you'll get many different opinions on this but generally speaking around three months old they are well equiped for the out doors and able to maintain themselves with the mature girls. Even at that I would still want to moniter their progress with the adults due to shyness on their part, and bullying on the part of the adults. We get down in the single digits here once in a while for a couple days at a time but most generally it's around 25-30 and yes freezing anywhere is cold, for me also. Have a very Happy New Year. Hay
Thanks, Haystack. I am mainly worried about them being warm enough, as they will be in a separate coop to start with - in sight but out of reach of the big girls. Would putting a heat lamp in their coop that they could sit under make it possible to move them sooner?
Hi porkpal! That is what I did with some 6 week olds last winter--they were in a small closed coop and I hung their booder lamp in there so they could warm up if they wanted. They did fine.
Catscan... does it REALLY get cold there?
porkpal.. you don't get ice? I can't remember how far down Richmond is.
Haystack.. Marysville had snow not to long again & it was really cold for several days. Did that miss you?
No, greykyttyn, it doesn't get really cold--we always have a few nights in the 20s--but mostly it is just above freezing and very wet.
But the chicks were very young--I had run out of inside room. I think what helped was that they were closed in very small coop (about 4 feet by 4 feet and 3 feet tall), there were a lot of them and the lamp was big. They had deep bedding too. You open the coop from the top and I hung the brooder lamp from the roost. It worked very well....
i just can't imagine it getting that cold in Lodi..
Lodi is in inland Northern California, greykyttyn, near the foothills of the Sierra (home of the famous Donner Pass). We get socked in for week with near freezing foggy drizzle in the winter--it is our rainy season. The chickens hate it.
ah.. didn't realize you were that close to Donner. I've seen the sign for Lodi many times when we've went thru, probably been there without realizing I had.
Well, we are actually about 135 miles west of Donner Pass--but close in latitude. The main difference is altitude. The Central Valley of California was a huge seasonal inland lake till they built the levees. That is why the land was so fertile.
We still have incredible water fowl and raptor migrations every year.
SO ... i get snow.. its really really really cold here half the time i the winter during a good winter.. would it be safe for me to put the chicks out at 3 months also? Since i have a broody right now.. i'd kinda also like to know. Was seriously considering bringing her inside after the chicks are born.. not that my mom is happy with that idea.. but one of those rabbit cages like CMoxon had would be perfect for it..
I brought my broody in when she unexpectedly hatched three chicks two weeks ago--they are in a rabbit cage just like Moxie's. She is a great broody and has raised many chicks successfully outside--but it is so cold and wet I thought it would be better if I brought them in. They are no trouble at all.
with the cage i could just put them in my room on my desk...
but mom won't be happy. I need to find one of those cages cheap.. i can't afford much. if it doesn't snow much tonight I'll go look at teh pet stores tomorrow. Didn't make it today. With 5 pet stores in town.. surely someone is running a clearance sale.
She's a pretty little silkie. I think she'll make a good momma.
Look on craigslist.
Oh, Good! This is the discussion i need, too. "If" my Silkie successfully hatches her eggs, is it best to bring the babies in? We get done into the 20's, even teens, but not too often. The coop is fairly warm, the water never freezes, but if I put a light out there, could they stay? Her nest is deep, and on (actually below the chip level) the floor/bedding. I'll bring them in if need be, but should Mom come too? I'd like them to be with her if possible.
Of course, I'll probably panic and bring them in, anyway....:)
helped me too. My kitchen/dining room is full of dust from the chicks and the shavings. Was using puppy pads until they decided to eat them. Was wondering if I could put them in one of the duck cage nursery section with a light. The cage is enclosed with plastic on 3 sides but still get pretty cool as it doesn't get much light on the nursery end
I guess what we all want to know is what temperature do chicks need at what age? It is easy to find recommendations for the first few weeks but after that...?
It was cold at night when my silkie hatched out her babies,she keep them very warm,they would come out for a few minutes at a time then she would tell them to get back under her and they would.As they got older they would stay out longer.
i hate it.. but mom suggested just letting her stay out there. It gets in the single digits here.. sometimes lower.. just depends on teh weather.. what worries me the worst is the week I'm going to Washington.. I can get someone to feed & water them for mom... but she isn't back to where she could care for an inside chicken. I need to get teh one i've got i here now healed & back out there in the next 3 weeks. (which i dont think is too much to ask.. he seems to be doing well)
At twelve weeks the girls will do well in the teens as they will huddle to keep warm. Any younger than that will go to mom if she is around and they get cold. A ten week old chick will do fine at freezing as long as they have others to huddly with. Any younger that that should have a heat source to move toward, even a sixty watt bulb will make a great difference for a young chick. My coop is thirty five at night and I have three seven week olds in there with only a sixty watt bulb they can get under and they do fine. Hay
So Hay, If I might ask, what is the difference between the red lamps and a 60 watt?
It is so cold here; I am glad all the chicks are still inside. There are quite enough beasties outside to deal with. The water troughs have to be de-iced several times a day. I don't know how you people in the north survive!
Glad to hear this info because the Black Copper Marans are getting to big for the dog crate. Think I will put them in the cage with the bantam Sebrights and the 500w halogen light after we come out of the deep freeze. Will continue to keep the bantam Araucana inside for the time being. Geesh everything in my Kitchen Dining room is covered in dust from them scratching in the pine shavings and can't keep it clean. Hubby is very upset over it
Mine are in the living room. No room in the kitchen for four (currently) Rubbermaid crates. The dust is amazing. The reason for this insanity: my son felt bad that I had lost several hens to a raccoon this summer, so he decided to give me some more for Christmas. Of course, in the winter, no hatchery will ship fewer then 25 for warmth reasons. He saw no problem with this, so I have all these chicks that keep outgrowing their crates and I keep adding more and more crates. I use the pelleted bedding but it isn't totally dustless and they create feather dust as well. Meanwhile we are having a colder-than-average winter so they aren't going out anytime soon.
Oh my. LOL!! Did anyone ever watch StarTrek -The tribbles episode?? Too funny.......sorry, porkpal, but...oh my.
Grow, that was one of my favorite episodes!
Sorry Porkpal but you had me in stitches. You folks down south don't know how to prepare for really cold weather cause you don't usually have much of it. We don't prepare well for the heat as well as you do either. I can understand why the chickens are in the house, my wife would divorce me for that encroachment...LOL
Miss Jester the red bulb is recommended due to pecking, but it's also a heat lamp and ususally comes in 250 watt or 150 watt and is made specifically for heat. A regular light is made for light but can be used also for heat. A red 250 will run your electric rates much higher so if you can get by with a smaller wattage that is what I recommend. Hope that helped my dear...Hay.
I still have the red one I had last year when Billy and I got our first babies.... I am hoping the feed store will soon have chicks, and I have my old tote, grandmothers quilt rack, and red light ready in anticipation.... Ohh the memories....
They use to make special low wattage red lights because red light was said to heat, or be absorbed as heat more readily than white. All we kind find here now are those silly 'party bulbs'...
This is a big one, bigger than a normal light bulb, O had to buy a special drop socket for it.
I use a regular 75 watt bulb for them when they are newly hatched and in a small brooder (plastic box)....then move to a 100 watt red flood lamp from the hardware store--no need for the special socket. Of course I have small hatches so they can easily warm themselves under the 75 watt....and the 100 uses less electricity than the usual 250 brooder lamp....which helps
I have a lone banty chick (unknown Bantam Mom, Turken Dad) with a Silky Mom. They're still in the coop, and I put a light in the corner so the littlie would have a place to get warm if needed. Yesterday I went out and there was Mom under the light, with Baby on her back :) Closer to the heat, maybe? Normally she ( yes, I'm an optimist) just runs amuck and returns to Moms' wing when needed.
after we get out of the deep freezer I am putting the 4 Blk Copper Marans out with the Sebrights with the 500w light. They are just getting to big to be in the dog kennel with 5 Araucanas chicks. All 9 of them are 7 weeks old now with good feathering. The 1 BCM with the big crop died a few days ago. Thought it would make it. Crop would go down by half then it would pig out again
I've got a red 250w on in the new coop trying to keep the temps around 40 at night for them.. can't see my breathe & its not too bad to be standing in there so it must be working.. really don't want to see the light bill tho.
Sounds good. How big is the coop you are heating?
the BCM are so big now for so young. 7 weeks Wednesday. So going to try to put them outside with the Sebrights. The dog kennel is only 42" L x 32" W. There are 4 BCM and 5 Bantam Araucanas in there. My 2 friendliest little beggars up front that came from the worst eggs. Only 2 out of 12 hatched.
my coop is 8x6 with a 9 ft ceiling.
Grey this is just the temp cage. When they got to big for the brooder I put them in the dog kennel as I don't have their own cage built yet. Had thought they would be o.k. in it until Spring. Being a newbie to chickens I didn't know the Standards would get so big so fast
i figured that.. i wasn't sure which coop dimensions they were asking for so I stuck mine in not thinking too far into it.
Thanks, Grey. I was interested to learn how big a space the bulb was heating as I am thinking of moving my oldest chicks outside into a little coop with a light for warmth.