Hi everyone! My chicks are 11 days old and our temp out here in Missouri has been hot and humid, in the high 80's or low 90's some days. The chicks are in my house right now where the temp is about 75-80 in the back of house where I'm keeping them...Do they still need a brooder lamp on all day? or at all? Thanks. I did keep it off one evening when it was pretty warm and humid even after sundown and they were sleeping pretty spread out, all over the brooder, i didn't see any huddled next to one another as you typically do when they're cold.
Well, we have 3-day-old chicks on our enclosed deck where the thermometer says 85 and I turned off the lamp. They aren't complaining or bunching. I go more by their behavior than the temperature. If they are bunched or peeping, they need heat or air. if they are quiet and spread out, they are fine as is.
I would think that they would be huddled close together and peeping if they were too cold....anyone??
Baby chicks are like human babies - they will let you know, sometimes very loudly, what they need. The temperature guidelines are just that - guidelines. Thermometers can be inaccurate, but baby chicks know when they're cold - they bunch tightly together and screech. When they're too warm, they will stand around with their beaks open, and screech. When they're just right, they peep contentedly and race around, playing, or flop down where they happen to be and sleep. It's not rocket surgery.
I have a heating lamp (actually using a black 60 Watt bulb since it is pretty hot outdoors but not in the chicken house) for my chicks born last Saturday .. these 3 little chicks don't have feathers yet. In my part of California it is pretty hot outside over 100 degrees up to 110 degrees most days the nights are cooler but my chicks hatched May 22rd and May 29th are mostly feathered out so I don't use a heating lamp anymore. They never go under it even if I do have one on so I don't bother with it.
I agree with previous posters here: I live off the grid (no heat lamps) and have raised plenty of healthy chickens. They're just little animals -- you treat them the same as if they were tiny kittens or tiny anything. I watched a mother hen raising her chicks outside when the temperatures here in May were barely in the 50's and it was pouring rain everywhere except in their (unheated) outdoor brooding pen. By three days of age, those chicks were venturing out from under her wings to peck around in the little yard for short spells. By the time they were a week and a half old, they were never under her at all except at night, and the temps in the day were mostly in the 50's and 60's. I'm now raising some store-bought chicks which are 10 days old. They get a hot water bottle at night, wrapped in a towel, to sit on. No heat lamp. They're indoors in a big pen, in a room which tends to be around 65 degrees. I put them outside in the grass in a pen when it's sunny, with temps in the upper sixties or so, and take them in when the sun goes away. They're thriving and vigorous and growing fast.