How long do you plan on keeping them in there? I’ve kept 28 chicks in a 3’ x 5’ brooder until they were 5 weeks old. Most of them were pullets, which helps. I also kept 21 mostly male chicks in there until they were 5 weeks and it was getting a bit crowded. These were full-sized breeds. There is no magic number for how much room you need per chick, there are several different considerations. For 14 chicks that is a very nice sized brooder but if you try to keep them in there until they start to lay, it’s too small.
Is your brooder in your house or some kind of climate controlled location? Mine is in the coop, I use it in the heat of summer and sometimes in the winter when the outside temperature is below freezing. In different conditions I use different wattage heat lamps. I control temperature in part by raising and lowering the bulb. I’m probably going to get a dimmer control on it so I can adjust heat that way. I wrap it up pretty tightly in the winter to keep heat in but it’s pretty open in the heat of summer to help cool it off.
Lots of people don’t use heat lamps. A real trendy way to do this right now is making a cave with a heating pad. Some people use emitters or something else. Various forms of hovers are used, think of an inverted box that holds heat in. Some use incandescent bulbs instead of heat lamps. There are so many ways to do this, and they can all work.
What you should be trying to achieve is to heat one area warm enough even in the coldest conditions yet have another area cool enough even in the warmest conditions. That way they can find their own comfort level. I suggest you set it up and put a thermometer on the floor under the heat. Adjust the wattage and height of the bulb until that area is warm enough. Do that in a corner or on an end. Let the rest cool off as it will. If you do it this way they will self-regulate and you don’t have to worry about keeping it at the perfect temperature. They will do all the work for you and you don’t have any stress.
