A little paranoid...

CowgirlMama

Songster
12 Years
Feb 23, 2011
188
0
187
Baker City, Oregon
I lost a chick today, and am not sure about the temp in my brooder, so I'm a little freaked out. I have 2 thermometers in my brooder with 2 heat lamps. One is reading around 84-85 degrees and the other is in the low to mid-90s... meost of the chicks are huddled in 2 bunches on the cooler side of the brooder, while a few are sleeping on the warmer side. Its supposed to get down to 27 degrees here tonight- will they be ok?
 
Are they inside or outside? They should be able to choose to go to warmer or cooler sections. If they are all bunched up like on top of eachother they are probably too cold. But if they are in a single layer but close then they're probably just snuggling.
 
Quote:
They are in our garage. They're in one layer in 2 groups... they can go where its warmer, but it might be too warm... there are the odd few who are sleeping by themselves....
 
Ok- chicks made it through the night, however when my husband checked at 7 this morning, both thermometers had dropped below 80... I put the tank on 2x6 boards this morning, and added a space heater next to the tank to try to bring the heat up... the chicks seem happy and are eating, drinking and running around. I'm worried about the inconsistency in temp though. How do I regulate it better? I have 2 heat lamps about 18-20 inches from the bottom of the tank. The chicks are cuddling when they sleep, but not piling on top of each other... any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks!
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I was so scared last weekend with the new chicks. We had 16, 3-4 day olds set up in the brooder that the bigger chicks were in until they moved outside. Obviously more space to heat. However, they are inside, but we have a woodstove and temps at night before bed are drastically warmer than when we wake up in the morning. I noticed that the temps were dropping down to 70 degrees in the middle of the brooder and staying around 80 under the heat lamp. But lowering the heat lamp before bed made the temps far too warm, so I just left it. They were always huddled together under the heat lamp in the morning, but were never piled. The only thing I noticed is that they are getting feathers faster than the last batch of chicks that were raised, but all are healthy and alert, eating, drinking, and pooping well. Haven't lost a single one. I figure momma would have them out during the day at their age in far cooler temps.
 

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