walkerstop
Hatching
- Sep 24, 2025
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Hey fellow breeders,
I wanted to share an idea for a brooder setup for button quail chicks and get your thoughts. I’ve raised button quail successfully before, but this time I’m refining the system to solve a few challenges—especially around nighttime lighting, behavioral health, and room sharing with a peach-faced lovebird.
The Problem
I really want to keep the brooder in the same room where my lovebird's cage is. This is our "bird room" and there are a lot of practical reasons why we want it there, which I won't get into unless you really want to know.
Most brooder setups use heat lamps that emit visible light 24/7. That’s fine for warmth, but it could disrupt sleep cycles for both chicks and any other birds nearby. My lovebird couldn’t sleep with the glow, and I’ve read that chicks can benefit from a natural day-night rhythm. Plus, I want to avoid toe-pecking issues I’ve seen with blueface chicks whose dark feet contrast against white substrate.
My Goals
- Avoiding using a brooder plate -- I have had bad experiences with them, and I prefer to be able to see the chicks at all times through my nanny camera
- Maintain 100°F floor temp without visible light at night
- Prevent toe-pecking and overstimulation
- Keep the brooder in the same room as my lovebird without disturbing his sleep
- Use a safe, durable heat source that won’t burn out from thermostat cycling
- Preserve visibility for nanny cam monitoring
- Keep the heat source outside of the brooder (above the mesh lid) so that chicks cannot touch it and so that the lid remains secure to keep the lovebird from potentially entering the brooder
The Setup
- Brooder Box: 27-gallon plastic bin with mesh lid and sides for airflow
- Substrate: Black Shop Towels – thick, washable, better traction, heat absorption, and visual contrast for food and feet: https://a.co/d/3ZiMKJd
- Heat Source: 250W Ceramic Heat Emitter – no visible light, 10,000-hour lifespan, safe for thermostat cycling: https://a.co/d/bctj4OJ
- Fixture: 5.5" Deep Dome Ceramic Socket Fixture – polished interior for better IR focus, rated for 250W. I found that a ceramic heat emitter couldn't quite radiate enough heat from 18" away with a standard heat lamp fixture. This deeper, more reflective fixture should increase the effectiveness of the heat emitter by an estimated 20%-40% at 18" from the floor: https://a.co/d/faNeDW3
- Thermostat: BN-LINK Digital Heat Mat Thermostat Controller – sensor placed at floor level, set to 100°F: https://a.co/d/5rJIVZk
The fixture is mounted above the mesh lid, 18" from the floor, so chicks can’t jump up and burn themselves. The ceramic emitter provides warmth without disturbing my lovebird’s sleep, and the deeper dome improves heat focus compared to my old 3.5" reflector.
Why Darkness Matters
I’ve hard of toe-pecking, restlessness, and overstimulation in chicks under constant light. Ceramic heat emitters allow full darkness at night, which supports sleep, behavioral regulation, and circadian rhythm development. I found some great forum posts and articles backing this up—happy to share if anyone’s interested.
Would love feedback from others who’ve tried ceramic heat emitters or alternative brooder setups. Have you noticed better sleep or behavior with darkness at night? Anyone else raising chicks in a shared room with parrots?
Since this is a new setup for me and unproven, I would first do rigorous testing and temperature logging to ensure that proper temperature is maintained. As a backup plan, I will have normal heat lamps available I could switch to, and a blackout cover for the lovebird cage, in case I need to revert back to a traditional heat lamp.
P.S.: I know from experience and others that that button quail chicks can be very healthy and thrive with a heat lamp that is on all night, but I think there is some evidence supporting the idea that it might be even more beneficial to have darkness at night. Here are a few links supporting the idea:
https://iovs.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2200220
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/light-on-baby-quail-at-night.1494040/
https://www.cambridge.org/core/serv...latonin-biosynthesis-in-chick-embryos-div.pdf
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physiology/articles/10.3389/fphys.2025.1586580/full
At the end of the day though, I mainly just want them to be healthy but with the room dark at night so that I don't have to cover my lovebird's cage at night.
Thanks for reading!
Mike
I wanted to share an idea for a brooder setup for button quail chicks and get your thoughts. I’ve raised button quail successfully before, but this time I’m refining the system to solve a few challenges—especially around nighttime lighting, behavioral health, and room sharing with a peach-faced lovebird.
The ProblemI really want to keep the brooder in the same room where my lovebird's cage is. This is our "bird room" and there are a lot of practical reasons why we want it there, which I won't get into unless you really want to know.
Most brooder setups use heat lamps that emit visible light 24/7. That’s fine for warmth, but it could disrupt sleep cycles for both chicks and any other birds nearby. My lovebird couldn’t sleep with the glow, and I’ve read that chicks can benefit from a natural day-night rhythm. Plus, I want to avoid toe-pecking issues I’ve seen with blueface chicks whose dark feet contrast against white substrate.
My Goals- Avoiding using a brooder plate -- I have had bad experiences with them, and I prefer to be able to see the chicks at all times through my nanny camera
- Maintain 100°F floor temp without visible light at night
- Prevent toe-pecking and overstimulation
- Keep the brooder in the same room as my lovebird without disturbing his sleep
- Use a safe, durable heat source that won’t burn out from thermostat cycling
- Preserve visibility for nanny cam monitoring
- Keep the heat source outside of the brooder (above the mesh lid) so that chicks cannot touch it and so that the lid remains secure to keep the lovebird from potentially entering the brooder
The Setup- Brooder Box: 27-gallon plastic bin with mesh lid and sides for airflow
- Substrate: Black Shop Towels – thick, washable, better traction, heat absorption, and visual contrast for food and feet: https://a.co/d/3ZiMKJd
- Heat Source: 250W Ceramic Heat Emitter – no visible light, 10,000-hour lifespan, safe for thermostat cycling: https://a.co/d/bctj4OJ
- Fixture: 5.5" Deep Dome Ceramic Socket Fixture – polished interior for better IR focus, rated for 250W. I found that a ceramic heat emitter couldn't quite radiate enough heat from 18" away with a standard heat lamp fixture. This deeper, more reflective fixture should increase the effectiveness of the heat emitter by an estimated 20%-40% at 18" from the floor: https://a.co/d/faNeDW3
- Thermostat: BN-LINK Digital Heat Mat Thermostat Controller – sensor placed at floor level, set to 100°F: https://a.co/d/5rJIVZk
The fixture is mounted above the mesh lid, 18" from the floor, so chicks can’t jump up and burn themselves. The ceramic emitter provides warmth without disturbing my lovebird’s sleep, and the deeper dome improves heat focus compared to my old 3.5" reflector.
Why Darkness MattersI’ve hard of toe-pecking, restlessness, and overstimulation in chicks under constant light. Ceramic heat emitters allow full darkness at night, which supports sleep, behavioral regulation, and circadian rhythm development. I found some great forum posts and articles backing this up—happy to share if anyone’s interested.
Would love feedback from others who’ve tried ceramic heat emitters or alternative brooder setups. Have you noticed better sleep or behavior with darkness at night? Anyone else raising chicks in a shared room with parrots?
Since this is a new setup for me and unproven, I would first do rigorous testing and temperature logging to ensure that proper temperature is maintained. As a backup plan, I will have normal heat lamps available I could switch to, and a blackout cover for the lovebird cage, in case I need to revert back to a traditional heat lamp.
P.S.: I know from experience and others that that button quail chicks can be very healthy and thrive with a heat lamp that is on all night, but I think there is some evidence supporting the idea that it might be even more beneficial to have darkness at night. Here are a few links supporting the idea:
https://iovs.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2200220
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/light-on-baby-quail-at-night.1494040/
https://www.cambridge.org/core/serv...latonin-biosynthesis-in-chick-embryos-div.pdf
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physiology/articles/10.3389/fphys.2025.1586580/full
At the end of the day though, I mainly just want them to be healthy but with the room dark at night so that I don't have to cover my lovebird's cage at night.
Thanks for reading!
Mike
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