Brooder temp

[Soonerguy33]

What should brooder temp be ..They are inside garage in wood box...I have 250 watt heat lamp

 

[klevesque]

How old are they?

Day old chicks start out at about 95 degrees. You decrease it 5 degrees per week until it hits 70 degrees. Once they get their full feathers they should be acclimated to the temp without a heat lamp. At that point you could just use a regular light bulb.

 

[Soonerguy33]

Quote:
They are 3 days old...Only 2 baby chicks...I have it at 90 degrees

 

[Whisper]

I just watch the chicks . . if they're not comfy, I move the lamp up or down. I moved it too far up last night and they sure let me know-- they kept peeping nonstop until I came downstairs and moved the heat closer to them. And if they're hot they'll be panting and moved as far away from the heat as they can get.

Good luck!

 

[RioLindoAz]

They should be kept at 95* and reduced 5 each week. So it really depends how old they are.

 

[klevesque]

At 3 days old they need to be at 95 degrees. Once they are about 7 days old reduce it to 90, 2 weeks old they should be around 85.

Mine will be 4 weeks on Wednesday and techinically should be at 80 degrees since they are still 3 weeks but it has gotten to 72 and they still appeared content.

So play it by ear and move the lamp up and down as needed.

Since I am in Maine, I have to use 2 lamps. It's 33 degrees outside. Inside the coop is around 54 and inside the brooder it's 77.

We turned 1 lamp off the other night, hubby went in in the morning and it was only 67 in the brooder. They were obviously cold since they were on top of each other. Turned on the 2nd lamp and it no time they were walking around and eating.

 

[missrose]

should you change it if you have a lot of chicks?

 

[klevesque]

Change what? The temp?

The temp should start out at 95 whether you have 1 or 100 chicks.