Brooder heat plate confusion

[SBmember]

Brand new to chicks. Our chicks came in the mail yesterday at 3 days old after a 2 1/2 day trip, we have a fairly large brooder 3x4 1/2 roughly. 3 feet tall. It is a wooden crate with a hardwire cover, a premier heat plate in a corner, water dish with rocks, small feed dish, twigs/branches and a small container of dirt to play in. We lost a baby chick sometime in the night. No pasty butt even though we had to clean up 2 others. She was already uncoordinated when she arrived, and the brooder was reading 70°. I have the heat plate set at two different levels, as an option (because we have bantams and regular size chicks) and each side is set at the height of eachs backs. The nights lately have been getting down to 50°. The brooder is in the house and we only have natural light as our source which may explain why the chicks weren't coming out this morning in 70°. But i was always told if they're hudled under the heat source then there isn't enough so im starting to get paranoid. We put up a 100watt light on the other end of the brooder and everyone started roaming and playing but I'm not sure if it was because of more light or the temperature going up with the light and the house warming up with the day. We turned it off when it hit 90° in the brooder since it is coninuing to warm up in the house. I'm having a hard time figuring out how to keep a constant temp with the light bulb as the day gets warmer. Should we just leave it as strictly the heat plate and that'll be sufficient? My main question is that, is the heat plate enough of a heat source or do we need to supplement or add? Would it be best to leave the plate to use when they feel chilly and leave the other end without a heat source so they can get out of the heat if needed?

 

[SBmember]

Forgot to add a photo

 

[Chicken Chat]

I used a heat plate for the first time this spring and my little ones were under there a lot and only came out to eat and drink for a few moments before going back under. They sleep a lot for the first few day and yours had a long shipping experience. You are not able to take the air temp under the plate, it's radiant heat so will only warm a solid object. Are you saying that it gets 50 degrees inside your house at night or that is the outside temp? Also, how many chicks do you have?

 

[imnukensc]

Take the light out. Use only the brooder plate. The chicks will come and go under as they see fit. You have a nice brooder box. Those chicks should be fine. Sorry about the one you lost, but that was a long trip/time for a baby chick.

 

[SBmember]

I used a heat plate for the first time this spring and my little ones were under there a lot and only came out to eat and drink for a few moments before going back under. They sleep a lot for the first few day and yours had a long shipping experience. You are not able to take the air temp under the plate, it's radiant heat so will only warm a solid object. Are you saying that it gets 50 degrees inside your house at night or that is the outside temp? Also, how many chicks do you have?

50° outside and we have 7 now

 

[SBmember]

Take the light out. Use only the brooder plate. The chicks will come and go under as they see fit. You have a nice brooder box. Those chicks should be fine. Sorry about the one you lost, but that was a long trip/time for a baby chick.

Thank you for your input, and the condolences.

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

I used that exact heat plate with my chicks in the coop in April, lows in the 20's some nights. They were never in the house, I took the heat plate out at 4.5 weeks with lows at night in the 40's and 50's, they huddled at first and were on the roost soon after.

Gary

 

[SBmember]

Update: We removed the 100watt and put in a 40, raising it up above the brooder wire as a source of light for them. Everyone is looking good except one with a dirty vent, but we cleaned him up and put some petroleum jelly on. Thank you to everyone for your feedback.

 

[ronott1]

Update: We removed the 100watt and put in a 40, raising it up above the brooder wire as a source of light for them. Everyone is looking good except one with a dirty vent, but we cleaned him up and put some petroleum jelly on. Thank you to everyone for your feedback.

Ditch the light. The point of the heat plate is to give a more natural setting for raising the chicks.
The light is not necessary and a waste of electricity. The chicks will be fine! The one you lost died because of shipping stress.

Like was posted earlier, the plate will work down to below freezing. The thing to do is to raise or lower the plate based on the size of the chicks.

Also, the plate will not raise the temperature of the brooder. You do not need to pay any attention to that at all.

 

[SBmember]

Ditch the light. The point of the heat plate is to give a more natural setting for raising the chicks.
The light is not necessary and a waste of electricity. The chicks will be fine! The one you lost died because of shipping stress.

Like was posted earlier, the plate will work down to below freezing. The thing to do is to raise or lower the plate based on the size of the chicks.

Also, the plate will not raise the temperature of the brooder. You do not need to pay any attention to that at all.

Thank you for your comments, this thread has been very helpful.