heat lamp & chicks

[StarlynMarie]

I'm fairly new to owning chicks - I've grown up around chickens but never got the chance to raise a chick and I haven't quite figured it all out yet.

We have four chicks in the house all in one nice big box (until they can go outside). Two RIRs and two Australorps. They're about three weeks old.

I live in Northern California (just east of the Bay Area) and now that summer is here, it's getting pretty hot outside, especially in the house. When we got the chicks, we did buy a heat lamp for them (that was about two weeks ago), but we've only used it a handful of times. They all seem to be doing fine, just as active as ever, and they do cuddle up to each other when they're sleeping like they have since day one. But I was wondering if, since it can (and has over the last few days) get well up into the 90s and very low 100s and will only get hotter, do we have to and should we still be using the heat lamp on them? If so, for how long? Does it have to be 24/7 or for only a few hours a day?

Please help me, chicken savvy people.

Thank you!!!

 

[Lady of McCamley]

When chicks first hatch, they should be kept at about 95 to 98 degrees that first week if you are artificially brooding with a heat lamp. Be sure to have the lamp on one end of the box so that they can move into and away from the heat as they need. Food and water should be at the end away from the heat.

Each week, it is advised to lower the temperature by at least 5 degrees, by raising the heat lamp, until by 6 weeks of age, sooner if fully feathered, they are at ambient indoor temperature. Red light is better than white light as it does not interfere with their body rhythms as much.

Once they are acclimated to indoor temps, you then begin to acclimate them to outdoor temperature by exposing them to the outdoors during the day, bringing them in at night or putting the heat lamp on at night if needed.

In your situation, it sounds like you could do away with the heat lamp completely unless it gets a bit cool at night. You do not want to keep chicks too warm as they can dehydrate very quickly. Watch your chicks. If they are panting, spread out, and listless, they are too warm. If they are huddled together and peeping loudly, they are too cold.

In natural setting, with a broody hen, the chicks are out running around in ambient outdoor temps, even cold weather temps (such as 20 degrees and even below that) by the end of the first week using momma as a warming hutch. They are pretty much on their own by 4 weeks, fully feathered in, and running around in all temps like normal chickens (but best out of direct inclement weather).

So there is no need to feel you have to extend heat lamping. In fact, it can prolong their down stage and prevent proper feather growth and maturity, especially over lighting. Lighting is best if it is kept to a natural rhythm. Artificial brooding merely allows chicks to be hatched in all seasons without the aid of a hen, but I have personally witnessed that naturally broody hatched chicks mature faster and acclimate much quicker and avoid some of the issues with being over-heat lamped.

I am currently artificially brooding a batch of chicks due to a particularly difficult hatch (very slow hatch rates on a prized breed that caused me to bring them in away from the hen), and have my time table to be able to get the chicks feathered by 4 weeks and into my outdoor hutch where they belong (rather than in my computer room under false lighting).

Some experienced brooders actually use a heating pad set over a wire frame to approximate a hen, and do not have any artificial light at all. I've not tried that system yet, but will do so in my next future hatch should I have to artificially brood again (albeit I much prefer using brooding hens).

LofMc