brooder temp and chicks help!!!!!!

[Masonchick]

should people really worry about the temp of their brooder light or just on the way the chicks are acting????

 

[alpacaroad]

if the chicks are all huddled together then they are too cold -- so lower the heat lamp.

if the chicks are panting and holding their wings out then they are too hot -- so raise the heat lamp

if they are spread out and and look comfy then they are just right (said the mama bear).

Perferrably you have enough space in your brooder so the chicks can adjust their body temps by moving away or getting closer to the heat lamp.

 

[Judy]

Not the temp of the brooder light, but of the brooder itself, at floor level.

When setting up a brooder, a thermometer is surely the easiest way to gauge whether you have the best bulb wattage, etc. With experience, you can pretty well tell whether the temp is good by the behavior of the chicks. However, I would not recommend going on this alone to a newbie, especially during the first few days of life, when the margin for error is small.

 

[Ridgerunner]

The primary thing is the way the chicks are acting as Alpacaroad said. That is a better gauge than anything else. I also agree that a thermometer is a big help to people just starting out.

There is no perfect temperature for chicks. If you have a group of people in a room with the thermostat set to some average, some people are warm, some cool, and some just right. It’s the same with chicks. Different chicks prefer different temperatures. That doesn’t mean they are going to die if they don’t get exactly what they want, but they just don’t all need exactly the same thing.

To me the best way by far to set the brooder up is to heat one area so it is warm enough and let the far reaches of the brooder cool off as it will. Heat can be as dangerous as cold, maybe even more dangerous. If you let them they will self-regulate, even at a very young age.

My 3’ x 6’ brooder is in the coop. The chicks go in there straight out of the incubator whether the outside temperature is below freezing or highs are in the 90’s or above. In the winter I wrap it fairly well but when it is hot it gets a lot of ventilation. I only heat one end. If the outside temps fall below freezing there might be ice on the far end of the brooder but the area they and the food and water are in is toasty.

One summer with a ridiculous for us heat wave, I turned daytime heat off at 2 days and nighttime heat off at 5 days. Their body language told me they did not need it and they were right. In winter I often leave the heat on for five weeks, hardly ever any longer. I’ll adjust the heat as I deem necessary, either using different wattage bulbs or raising and lowering the heat source. What I do is different with each brood, depending on what they tell me. I don’t use a thermometer anymore but I did starting out.