Ducks are 12 hours old. Need help with keeping them warm.

[sahmom4cj]

Our new ducklings hatched today at 1pm. There are 12 of them. I've read so much about how to keep them warm, but I have a couple of questions. We made up a box for them and bought a heat lamp, a brooder bulb, and a thermometer to keep them around 90 degrees. We have a room upstairs that has no AC and it stays at about 75-80 degrees at night and about 85 during the day so we decided to put them there. The thermometer was at 92 degrees where the light shined in the box, but when I came to check on them again they had all gathered up on top of the thermometer together. When I got it out it showed the temp being 106. This seems to me like they do produce a little bit of heat themselves. In a room that stays as warm as this one does and the fact that they are all bundling together, do I really need to shine the lamp on them? I'm very worried about the fire hazard, as well as them overheating. We live in a very warm climate, but I'd rather start them off inside. I'm just worried I'm going to burn the house down with the heat lamp.

 

[Orca5094]

Just make sure to have the heat lamp only shining on one side of the box so they can move away if they get too warm. It's true they do give off some of their own heat when they are all snuggled together, but they are so young you do not want them to get chilled at any time. You can also adjust the height of the heat lamp over their box so it doesn't get quite as warm in there. Just take note of their behavior. If they're all huddle together right under the heat lamp they are likely cold. If they're all spread out or as far from the lamp as possible, they are too warm. The room you have them in sounds good since it's already pretty warm, but I would still keep the heat lamp on part of their box for now to be sure.