Brooder Temperature Help

[John01]

Here is a picture of the brooder I set up. I am getting 5 chicks on Tuesday and am getting things ready and testing the heat.

My brooder lamp has a 250 Watt red heat lamp & I have it suspended about 1 to 2" above the top of the tub. I am not getting even heat, on the floor its low 80's around the edges and high 80's on the floor in the middle. 6" up in the middle its over 100 degrees and low 90's on the outer edges.

Help me here I don't know what to do, am I being too critical or am I using the lamp wrong?

 

[4-H chicken mom]

I also use a red 250 watt heat lamp bulb. You need to place your thermometer directly under the heat lamp. You need to only worry about getting a 95 degree reading under the light. I wouldn't worry about the outer temp readings. If the chicks are too cold they will huddle together directly under the light. If they are too warm, they will move to the outer edges. Looking at where you light is at right now, I would think your temp would be way over 95 degrees. My light is about 4 feet above my box right now and my temp reading is 80 degrees for my 3 week old chicks. I hope this helps.

 

[Wildsky]

I would also move the lamp to the one side, so they have a cool side to go to if it gets too warm.

Cute brooder!

 

[coopist]

4-H chicken mom and Wildsky are right. The chicks need both a warm spot and a cooler one so that they can get acclimated to lower temps.

 

[plapczynski]

It kinda looks like you are setup in a garage. It the air temp out there is too cool, it will be hard to maintain 95 degrees

 

[Moselle]

This is what I did with my brooder...I put the heat lamp to one side (away from the waterer/feeder) and then I put a dish towel over part of it to shade from the heat a bit. That way, it's not too warm by the food and they can find a bit cooler areas if they like. Just experiment a bit and see if you can come up with a nice balance of warm (95*) and a bit cooler. I've had to watch my chicks quite a bit to see how they were acting and seem to have come up with a good balance.

I just noticed that your lamp is sitting (or nearly sitting) on the wire. In that case, do NOT put a towel under or near the lamp - might catch on fire.