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Beware of cooking your chicks. They need a place to get warm, but it is just as important that they have a way to cool off. Most of the heat lamps sold for chick brooders are way too big and hot for most backyard chicken setups. If your chicks are inside in a container of some sort, a large 250 watt heat lamp will fry your chicks pretty quickly. This is one reason those little Ecoglo gizmos are so popular. The small ones work great for a dozen chicks. They give the chicks a "safe" warm place to hide, and they won't overheat a small brooder.
If your whole brooder is 90 degrees or more, it is way too hot. Most feed stores tend to sell 250 watt bulbs, which is overkill for raising a handful of chicks. You can swap out the bulb with a much lower wattage heat bulb. You can find a variety of them in the reptile section of most large pet stores. If your brooder is small a 60 watt bulb may still be too much.
Keep one end of the brooder at a warmish temperature. Not hot. Make sure the rest of the brooder is room temperature, and the room is not too hot. I have had good results when I put the food and water at the far (cool) end of the brooder. Make sure the chicks know where the water is. Scatter some feed around on the ground, so they learn to peck for it.
Once you've seen a broody hen take her 2-3 day old chicks outside in the winter you won't be so concerned about heating indoor chicks. They need a way to get warm, but they thrive when they also have a way to cool off.
My broody-raised chicks that hatched in the fall grew much larger and much faster than any chicks that I've raised in a warm brooder in the spring. Their mom had them outside when they were just a few days old, and the temps were in the 40's (Farenheit). Healthiest chicks ever.
Don't cook the chicks!
