BRRODER TEMPERATURE

[JOSEPHC]

I have a Happy Hen brand brooder which is about 3 1/2 feet in diameter. A 250 watt red bulb is located in it, set at the lowest height setting . There are eight chicks in it that I obtained on Friday of this week. As such, they are about six or seven days old. When I received them they were very active
and still are since Friday. They roam all over the brooder, neither staying under the heat nor away from it. They occasionally will be found sleeping in various locations of the brooder, sometimes one or two together, sometimes separate, and other times no real pattern to their sleep or everyday activity. They aggressively eat and drink, are not sluggish, and do get frightened if you initially approach them, but soon calm down.

The brooder is in a small room, set aside out of traffic, but I cannot get it above 80 degrees. I change the water, if the chicks step into it or soil it. Just this morning, I placed a 3 inch base under the chick waterer to keep them out of the water. The waterer is now at shoulder height.

I guess what I am concerned about, is the temperature. They seem to me to be very active, yet I wonder if this is acceptable as this is my first experience with raising chicks. I am hesitant about putting an electric heater in the room to raise the room's temperature. Any and all ideas will be most appreciative. Thanks for your help.

 

[rwdeets23]

i had the same problem with the temp but couldnt get mine above 70 so i ended up putting a electric heater in mine but my chicks were all huddled up under the light so i had to do something, if they would of been running around coming and going from the light i wouldn't of even worried about it to much...

 

[BrewedInNh]

I guess what I am concerned about, is the temperature. They seem to me to be very active, yet I wonder if this is acceptable as this is my first experience with raising chicks. I am hesitant about putting an electric heater in the room to raise the room's temperature. Any and all ideas will be most appreciative. Thanks for your help.

I'm not an expert on this so another poster may correct the following. We're on our second batch of chicks. We have the same situation with the room's ambient temperature. I asked several friends who have small poultry farm and they help ease our concerns.

They explained that when chicks are raised by a hen the temp in the coop isn't very high. The chicks wander about when they're comfortable and instinctively go to the heat source (under mom) as needed. They will do the same in a brooder.

Try to minimize drafts, but allow for ventilation to keep things relatively dry. If the chicks spend most of their time under the lamp you may need to add another heat source. We have 2 lamps because our brooder is in an unheated basement in New Hampshire. This also insures they won't be completely without heat if one bulb burns out.

 

[rwdeets23]

I'm not an expert on this so another poster may correct the following. We're on our second batch of chicks. We have the same situation with the room's ambient temperature. I asked several friends who have small poultry farm and they help ease our concerns.

They explained that when chicks are raised by a hen the temp in the coop isn't very high. The chicks wander about when they're comfortable and instinctively go to the heat source (under mom) as needed. They will do the same in a brooder.

Try to minimize drafts, but allow for ventilation to keep things relatively dry. If the chicks spend most of their time under the lamp you may need to add another heat source. We have 2 lamps because our brooder is in an unheated basement in New Hampshire. This also insures they won't be completely without heat if one bulb burns out.

i worry about the light burning out too im up and down all night looking out at the coop to make sure i see red through the cracks lol