Heat plates

[Karen Glatz]

Lamps keep your chicks under light 24/7. If you have them inside, they will be peeping and running around all night long, which is not good for your sleep either.

Plates allow them to sleep the through the night and be more active during the day. They also teach the babies about cooping and snuggling together as a flock - as opposed to just falling flat where ever they are when they get too tired to keep running around.

If you are worried about the cold while they are tiny, you could keep them in the house for the first week or two then move them outside as they get more size and feathers (with a plate or always on heating pad on low, inside and outside, until they are 6 weeks) They are fun to watch and you are more likely to handle them if they are in the house with you, which makes them more friendly and docile as adults, and you more invested in their health and friendship.

 

[NatJ]

Lamps keep your chicks under light 24/7. If you have them inside, they will be peeping and running around all night long, which is not good for your sleep either.

Plates allow them to sleep the through the night and be more active during the day. They also teach the babies about cooping and snuggling together as a flock - as opposed to just falling flat where ever they are when they get too tired to keep running around.

Do you have personal experience with heat lamps? I have used heat lamps many times, and some of what you say is not what I have experienced.

The chicks DO mostly sleep at night. It doesn't seem to matter whether they are in an outdoor coop, in a garage, or in a human house: when the other lights go off or the sun goes down, they mostly do go to sleep. Yes, they may get up for a midnight snack or if something startles them, but they are MUCH less active during the night than they are during the day. I have tiptoed over and looked at sleeping chicks under their heat lamp many, many times.

As regards snuggling together, chicks under a heat lamp usually do sleep next to each other, not all spread out. This is especially noticeable at night, although they may take daytime naps anywhere they happen to be.

I have not used a heat plate for comparison. However, I have raised chicks with broody hens. Of course the chicks do go under her at night, but they are not sleeping quietly all night any more than the heat lamp ones are. They make lots of little peeping sounds and shuffle around. I can tell this by listening, so they are not disturbed by my shining a flashlight or turning on a light.

 

[SandyRiverChick]

It also lets out toxic fumes and its highly frowned upon by many hatcheries.

The hatcheries (I know I read one from McMurray,) discourage shatter resistant which = Teflon. For sure agree. So just get the right one, natural clay/metal, no Teflon.

 

[Karen Glatz]

I've done it both ways, and much prefer the plates or always-on heating pad. Since I keep the chicks in my bedroom for the first two to three weeks, and I'm a light sleeper, I'm VERY aware of them at night. With the lamps, believe me, they are awake all night, running around and peeping loudly . With the heat plates or pads, they settle in and are quiet as soon as it gets dark and wake up when it gets light. There might be a little quiet peep now and then as they snuggle around in their sleep, but they are not up and walking around. They act like they would with their mom. Mother hens don't stir at night. I much prefer the plates or pads. I think they grow and learn faster with the normal rhythm of light and dark, wake and sleep.

Also, with pads or plates, they get to choose how warm they want to be. With the lamp, they are somewhat at the mercy of how high or low the lamp is and how much room they have to get away from the lamp.

 

[kimdk]

I switched to a Premier1 heat plate about 4 years ago for my chicks. I will never go back to a heat lamp. The chicks are much less skittish when I approach the brooder, they get used to the night/day cycles and use the plate when they are cold, unlike having that blaring heat lamp all day/night long. Baby chicks need much less heat than books tell you they need. I 150% recommend the heat plates.

 

[NatJ]

Also, with pads or plates, they get to choose how warm they want to be. With the lamp, they are somewhat at the mercy of how high or low the lamp is and how much room they have to get away from the lamp.

If the chicks have no choice of temperature with a heat lamp, I would say it is being used wrong. There should always be plenty of space for them to get away from the heat.

Maybe that is part of the difference in what I have seen as compared with what some other people see: a big brooder with a heat lamp in one corner is very different than a small brooder that has a heat lamp making the entire thing warm or hot.

I agree that there are many situations where a brooder plate is better than a heat lamp. But I think there are some cases where a heat lamp is the better choice (like a large number of chicks in a place too cold for heat plates), along with many times that a person could choose either one and have good results either way.

 

[SandyRiverChick]

If the chicks have no choice of temperature with a heat lamp, I would say it is being used wrong. There should always be plenty of space for them to get away from the heat.

Maybe that is part of the difference in what I have seen as compared with what some other people see: a big brooder with a heat lamp in one corner is very different than a small brooder that has a heat lamp making the entire thing warm or hot.

I agree that there are many situations where a brooder plate is better than a heat lamp. But I think there are some cases where a heat lamp is the better choice (like a large number of chicks in a place too cold for heat plates), along with many times that a person could choose either one and have good results either way.

Curious, what kind of heat lamp do you use? I think of the big red ones whenever people say heat lamp but I'm discovering that alot of people mean Ceramic or white light.... I actually do like ceramic heat lamps. My thought process is that a real Broody is best way to go, but a MHP or heat plate would mimic a Hen more than nothing at all..... ? I know you've raised alot more chicks than me so in general I'm curious what your brooder set up looks like. Ideas help me to always improve

 

[NatJ]

Curious, what kind of heat lamp do you use? I think of the big red ones whenever people say heat lamp but I'm discovering that alot of people mean Ceramic or white light.... I actually do like ceramic heat lamps. My thought process is that a real Broody is best way to go, but a MHP or heat plate would mimic a Hen more than nothing at all..... ? I know you've raised alot more chicks than me so in general I'm curious what your brooder set up looks like. Ideas help me to always improve

I have always used the kind of heat lamp that is a metal reflector with a big red bulb (250 watts). Or a few times, I have used a smaller-wattage incandescent bulb in the same reflector.

I have used many different brooder setups, but they always have the heat at one corner or one end, with enough space for the chicks to get away from the heat at the other end. I've used cardboard boxes, cardboard pieced together to make bigger pens, plastic wading pools, a glass aquarium (12 x 30 inches, not a good choice with the 250 watt bulb), metal dog kennel panels & chicken wire pieced into a pen that filled half the garage, a chicken tractor covered with tarp and an old shower curtain liner (clear plastic to let in daylight), the entire chicken house, and probably a few other things that I've forgotten.

I typically put down a good layer of newspaper, then a single layer of paper towels on top, then the feeder and waterer. (Typical plastic waterer that screws onto a jar, feeder can be a similar style or any dish that is handy.) I often put marbles in the water for the first few days, but sometimes not (it doesn't seem to make much difference, but the marbles make me feel better.) Feed is unmedicated chick starter, water is plain water from either a well or a public water supply (depends on what is available at the house I live in at the time.) I do not add anything to the water or the feed: no electrolytes, no vitamins, no herbs, etc.

One the chicks are a few days old, I might keep them on paper towels with newspaper underneath, or I might add other bedding like pine shavings or dry leaves (varies depending on how many chicks, whether they are inside the house or somewhere else, and what is available with a strong preference for "free" when possible.)

I don't worry too much about the exact temperature under the heat lamp: anywhere from 95 to 110+ is acceptable to me, for the hottest spot directly under the light. I don't want fires, but I am not worried about overheating chicks because they always have a cooler place to go. I have noticed that lowering the lamp will make the warm area smaller as well as hotter, so I sometimes prefer to put it low (small hot spot) rather than high (large warm spot, less cool area left.) I try to keep the water above freezing, so if the chicks are outdoors in cold weather I will put the water in a place that is partly warmed by the lamp, closer to the heat in the first days and further out as they get a bit older. In hot summer weather, I cannot get the "cool" space very cool outdoors, but I make sure it is shaded, and I prefer a brooder 6+ feet long so the chicks can get well away from the heat lamp if they want to. I do not worry much about a brooder being too big (so 6 feet long for half-a-dozen chicks does not bother me.) Chicks are attracted to the light of the heat lamp, so they don't have too much risk of getting lost in a cold corner.

I have never had much trouble with pasty butt (for a small amount of stuck dry poop, just pull it carefully off: it will pull off a little fluff as well, the chick will peep, but it is over very quickly. I think trying to soak & scrub it off would be more stressful for the chick.)

I have never seen a chick with coccidiosis, or with any other disease.

Whether I start with shipped chicks or home-hatched chicks, if they survive the first 24 hours, they usually stay alive and healthy until I'm ready to start butchering the males.

It doesn't feel difficult to me, but maybe that's because I had someone show me how when I was young, and then I've done it many times since, so I've got a set of habits that generally work well for chick-raising.

 

[Dim2000]

I am in Northwest, Missouri, A new chicken farmer and I will be get six baby chicks in May. I was planning to get a heat plate for the brooder until the hatchery recommended a heat lamp. They said heat plates are not warm enough. I plan to put the brooder in a garage or backyard shed/coop. I didn’t want to worry about a fire, extra fire hazard with heat lamp. Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[Dim2000]

Hi TAMFAM. How does the ideal heater looks to you? I would like to invite you to my thread (My story of finding and building the best heater - https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/my-story-of-finding-and-building-the-best-heater.1612601/ ), where the ideal heater can be discussed, and I can have participant's feedback taken to the Canadian manufacturer.