I am getting my baby chicks on Tuesday. They will be a week old. I have set up a brooder and we are going to keep it in our garage. Here are my two questions 1) The garage stays between 80 - 85 degrees. Do the chicks still need some extra heat or is that warm enough? 2) Is it o.k. to put playground sand at the bottom of the brooder? Thanks for your help!
but watch to make Sure none of them eat the paper towel! I had a chick that nearly died from doing that. She is ok now but much smaller than the others.If yours are a week old already, find out what bedding they are used to.
I'm no expert, but what I've heard is that pine shavings are good, and old towels are better. Some people say they eat pine shavings, and I've heard they do eat sand and it can stop them up. If you don't mind washing, old towels are probably the cheapest and best way to go.
they need the heat, but where are you and how hot is it outside? Do you have a thermometer? I bought some new chicks this year, larger ones in the coop outside. I kept the newbies in the house, (getting to 40*s at night outside), but I only used the heat lamp/bulb for 2 days, then cut it off, it was warm enough without. Now at 6 weeks they are outside in a separate cage with the big girls, 508's at night now, no added heat. Pine shavings, with paper towel on top, or the towels would work great, throw some food on the ground, so they figure it all out, use a feeder on a block of wood or overturned tupperware bowl, to decrease waste..same with water...after a few days/week, remove the towels, they should do great. Post pics too, we LOVE baby shots!
It is in the mid-nineties here during the day and drops down to the sixties-seventies at night. My garage is built with concrete, so it stays a pretty consistent temp. I have been watching my brooder for a few days with a thermometer in it and it stays around 80-85 degrees. I put a 65 watt lightbulb in and it skyrocketed to 100, so I took it out. I have now replaced it with a 25W bulb. We will see what the temp does. The chicks are just about a week old.
Quote:You can purchase this dimmer-switch mechanism at a place like Walmart that allows you to adjust the amount of light/heat in very gradual amounts. I also live in Colorado and it can get quite chilly at night so I used a heat lamp for the first 5 weeks (only at night after about the 3rd week) I got tired of trying to find ways to move the light farther and farther from the brooder and purchased the dimmer-switch thing. I think "rheostat' is the proper name rather than "dimmer-switch-thing"
