Chicks are here! Brooder temp question

[fallenmaplefarms]

My chicks arrived today and seem to be settling in well. They are eat and drinking like crazy. All are active and peeping contently. I have them set up in a large dog cage with the heat lamp on one end the food and water in the middle and nothing in the far end. The temp on the floor of the brooder (when I can get a good reading and the chicks aren’t pecking at the red laser beam…lol) is constant at 93 degrees. They are off the floor on top of a table and not in a drafty area of the house. The temp is a little cooler than the recommended 95 degrees. But I spent the whole day yesterday troubleshooting the temp in the brooder before the chicks arrived and to lower the lamp further would mean I would have to hang it entirely inside the cage and the temp gets wayyy too high if I do that. Right now, the lamp is secured with a chain with the top part sitting on top of the cage with the safety cage hanging inside the brooder like the pic below. Chicks seem content and are scattered throughout the cage some under it, some off to the side of it and some on the cooler end. Is the 93 degree temp ok for them? They hatched on Tuesday. Thanks in advance.

 

[MountainWoman73]

Sounds like you're doing fine. If they're not acting cold (piling up on top of each other, huddling together and peeping loudly), then they're probably doing fine. A little too cold is better than a little too hot, I think.

 

[fallenmaplefarms]

Sounds like you're doing fine. If they're not acting cold (piling up on top of each other, huddling together and peeping loudly), then they're probably doing fine. A little too cold is better than a little too hot, I think.

Thank you! I’m a first time chicken owner so it’s going to be a learning curve here. I’ve wanted them for years and the hubby kept putting it off. So I just went ahead and did it! After reading many many chicken books and scouring the web for guidance I decided to pull the trigger. I wish I would have done it years ago.

 

[aart]

is constant at 93 degrees. They are off the floor on top of a table and not in a drafty area of the house. The temp is a little cooler than the recommended 95 degrees.

What's the temp on the floor away from the lamp?

That 95°F to start then 5° less each week does not need to be followed exactly.
Better to go by their behavior.
Here's some guidelines I've found to be invaluable:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/aarts-chick-heat-blurb.75619/

 

[fallenmaplefarms]

What's the temp on the floor away from the lamp?

That 95°F to start then 5° less each week does not need to be followed exactly.
Better to go by their behavior.
Here's some guidelines I've found to be invaluable:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/aarts-chick-heat-blurb.75619/

Thank you so much for the link! Temp on the other end is about 88 degrees.