chick acting hot, but staying under heat lamp

[ValerieJ]

Not my first time brooding, but first time to have this happen. A couple times today, I found one little 10 day old chick laying under the heater with her wings out a bit, yawning and even panting a little. Looks like she is hot to me, but then why is she right under the heat? I do have to keep it warmer than I would for a 10 day old because I also have a 3 day old chick in there. So that end is at 98. I have 2 other 10 day old chicks who are not having this issue. Do you all think it could be something other than being too warm?

 

[slordaz]

creature of habit maybe? mine only have heat lamp on at night after day 2 and have done fine, maybe make her go drink cause she got to hot and started dehydrating, and raise the heighth of the lamp a little to start weening them from it. What kind of lamp are you using if it's the 250 that would do it

 

[ValerieJ]

Ok. I'll raise it a bit, but when I do that my 3 day old chick stands directly under it. I worry about her. They are all drinking plenty of fluids, so at least that's not a worry. Yes, a 250 watt bulb.

I tried the chick heating disk and it looked like I was torturing the baby, so i sent it back. The instructions said she needed to be able to make contact, so I made one end really low and then the other end quite a bit higher, giving her the option. She would stand under the low end, but after about 20 seconds she would jump and crouch. Then, stand and repeat. Definitely unable to sleep under there. Ever since I hooked up the heat lamp she has been worshiping it. But, she does also run around with the big girls. She is absolutely adorable trying to keep up and do whatever it is they're doing. Then she gets cold and goes back to worshiping the heater.

I have the Sweeter Heater coming. I don't know if it has settings, but I'm hoping it's a less harsh heat than the bulb.

 

[MandaH]

Might be kind of like us humans who choose to go out in the sun when the house is warmer She will know when to leave the lamp if it becomes too much but otherwise seems to be just enjoying soaking up the heat 250 watt can be a bit much in summer time. But you said you are monitoring the temp so you should be good that it isn't too over heated and they do have options of moving away from it.

 

[ValerieJ]

I moved the lamp up a bit yesterday and it seemed better for them at 94 degrees. (Why is there not a degree symbol on the keyboard???) Then as the day cooled down it got down to about 88 and I worried about it getting too cold for the young one (now 4 days old) so I lowered it again. Early this morning they were all laying out with wings spread like they were all dead, at 98 degrees. So I'm settling on the 88. The little one is doing fine and will cuddle with her flock mates when it's not warm enough. I have never had all this trouble with the heat before, but the slightly different ages are a new experience for me. They are in a garage room that only has a small fairly ineffective space heater. It stays cool in there all day, so heating their personal space is a must.

Thanks for all the advice and encouragement! I think I've got them all happy now.