I've tried the "mother hen" brooder and just don't prefer it. I have one and my personal preference has always been the heat lamps because it warms the ambient temperature of my brooder building. Once birds are feathered I can graduate them to a bigger brooder in there with a regular bulb and keep the heat lamps on younger birds. Once the poults are fully feathered I will put a regular light bulb on them. By then I should have some more birds hatching. The building isn't frigid cold, but it isn't warm and toasty so it should give them ample time to acclimate to cooler Temps before I move them outside. I just don't want to move poults outside getting sub freezing temperatures too soon before they are sturdy enough to survive it. A heat lamp in one area of the larger outdoor brooder would give them a place to warm up while still giving them plenty of room for scratching and eating away from the heat.
