Baby chicks should be inside with a heat source for the first 5-6 weeks, or until they are fully feathered. At 5 weeks I turned off my chicks heat source to let them get used to regulating their own temperatures. They were mostly fully feathered at this point and it wasn’t too cold in the house. This will help prepare them for outside where they wouldn’t have a heat lamp.
We were a little late getting the coop for our hens done so the chicks had a couple more days inside than we originally planned. I was so ready to move the babies outside when we finished the new coop. I love my chicks but they were starting to smell and they produced SO MUCH dust! I couldn’t keep the house clean… I probably won’t keep chicks in my living room ever again!
Finally the coop was done (mostly… to the point that the hens could use it and be safe.) and the old coop was in place for the new chicks to move in to. We butted the old coop up against the run so the hens and the chicks could still see and interact with each other, but be separate and safe.
As excited as I was to get them out of the house, I felt a little guilty leaving them out in the coop all by themselves! We ended up checking on them in the middle of the night. haha! They were totally fine.
One thing I was concerned about is them figuring out how to drink out of a nippled water dispenser. I sat in there with them for a while and tried to show them how to use it, but they didn’t seem interested. I sat out there for a while before deciding to take a break. When I went back out to try again, they were drinking just fine with it!
They adjusted so well to living out in the coop! They’re growing up so fast!
