Heat for new chicks.....

[jramirez]

Is a regular lamp with a 60 watt bulb fine for 2 wk chicks?

 

[SMilano]

i have one on my 8 day old chicks, so far so good! guess it all has to do with the distance it is from the chicks and how many chicks you have for heat conduction.

 

[Delta2 23]

Try it and watch the chicks. I suppose you've just got to see how they like it. If they pile up together and chirp loudly, they are cold, and you should lower the lamp or get a stronger one.

 

[EastCoastSilkies]

Just keep a close watch on your chicks. Sometimes a clear bulb will make them uneasy and they will peck at each other and sometimes gives off either too much heat or not enough. Try putting a thermometer in the box with them so you know what the temperature is at. A red colored light heat bulb works well for us. It keeps them calm and warm at the same time. Hope this helps!

 

[jramirez]

is it better to leave it on all night? will they be able to sleep?

 

[SewChaos]

I was using a brinsea eco-brooder for my 8 white leghorn chicks, but while I was at Wilco on Saturday I happened to see two very lonely Easter-egger chicks, so I brought them home. (They were sooo sad looking, just the two of them in the big tub)

They are much smaller than the 2 week old leghorns, so they needed the eco-brooder. I didn't want to put them in with the bigger girls for a couple of days.

I don't like heat lamps - too much risk of fire, so I just set a seedling heat mat in the brooder with the bigger chicks. It's supposed to warm up to 20 degrees above room temp. When I set a thermometer on the mat, it read about 80-85 degrees.

I did that on Saturday. The bigger chicks are all doing just fine. They just lay on the mat to nap. At night the cuddle up together on the mat. Works great, uses less electricity and very little fire risk. My brooder is in my kitchen, at about 68 degrees.

 

[WI FarmChick]

is it better to leave it on all night? will they be able to sleep?

Yes leave it on all night.