Thought I knew the answer to this and now that I am a nervous new mom I am not sure. With our ducklings it was 90 degree temp, but I think maybe it needs to be warmer for chicks? (bantams) I currently have it at 95 degrees in the warmest spot, 80 in the coolest. Is this okay???? I am worried maybe it is not quite warm enough.
90 to 95 the first week, decreasing by 5 degrees from there until such time you are down to 70 degrees and/or they are feathered out. Watch your chicks. If they huddle under the heat lamp, they're too cold (no matter what the thermometer says). As far away from the heat source as possible and they're too warm. My chicks never liked it as hot as 90. They preferred 85 their first week.
They are just now coming out of the eggs I imagine they will be in the brooder by tomorrow evening. Was just thinking, since the incubator is 100, and mom's body temp is 100, maybe there should be at least one spot in the brooder that warm?
Quote:I think this is more accurate, I do the same with my little tykes. I also use the heat to prepare them for going outside, as far as reducing the temp to harden them off so to speak. has worked just fine for me. AL
I am new to raising chicks this year. I have my brooder in the garage (the garage is insulated and is probably 50 - 60 degrees. It is a metal water trough that I borrowed from a friend. I anxiously setup it up a couple of weeks before the first chicks came. I had one heat lamp in it and plywood covering about 2/3 of the top. After several hours the temp was 85 degrees. So I added a second heat lamp. This brought the temp up to 95. When I put the chicks in the brooder I noticed that they were hanging out in the cool end. They were avoiding the end with the heat lamps. A few days latter I added more chicks and they also avoided the heat lamps. I finally unplugged one of the heat lamps and within an hour they were using the entire brooder. I see that the youngest chicks sleep near the heat lamps but they are not huddled together. The older ones use the entire brooder but sleep in the cooler end. The older chicks are 2 weeks old and the younger ones are one week old. I plugged in the second heat lamp again today for a couple of hours to see what would happen. All of the chicks moved to the cool end and would not go near the warm end. The second lamp is now permanently unplugged. (A spare I guess).
I have babie's that are 3 days old today and Im having a hard time getting the lamp set, my termometer says its 90 to 92 in there and they are still acting like they are to warm. Yesterday I raised the lamp a little, but through the night I think it got a little cold in the garage and one got smothered
