heat lamp help please!

[yorklady]

I have had my baby chicks for 3 weeks now and they are rapidly outgrowing their first brooder. DH bought a much bigger, deeper one for them but I am afraid with it being on my kitchen table it will be harder to reach in to change water, feed, etc. If we move them to our living room on the coffee table ( a large, glass topped table) we may not be able to suspend a heat lamp easily as we have a cathedral ceiling in the living room. My chicks were 1 to 1 1/2 weeks when I got them. The lemon cuckoo orp and the buff orp are mostly feathered in but my BCM still has some fuzz. When do they no longer need the heat from a heat lamp?

 

[Cotton42]

IMO at 3 weeks they don't need a heat lamp anymore. As long as it's a comfortable temp in the house for you, it will be for them too.

 

[yorklady]

Thank you so much for the answer. I was thinking maybe that would be the case as they are tending to stay away from the section that has the heat lamp! Thanks again! The picture of your home is lovely!

 

[Cotton42]

No problem, and thank you!

I love those trees!

 

[NovaAman]

Well, at that age, if they need heat, you could probably get away with a 75-100 watt bulb. I for one would not want them in my living room. The food creates so much dust. Can your remove them to a garage or something? It might not seem bad now, but the bigger they get, the more dust you will have covering EVERYTHING. I'd say if these are your first chicks, and depending on your local, you might be able to move them to a coop by now. Keep them locked in for a few weeks yet though...

 

[yorklady]

Thank you Nova. So far I haven't found them to be dusty but the lady who cleans for me is probably blessing me about now. Maybe because I only have three there is less dust. They are the first chicks that I have raised. We have 4 Red Stars, 2 White Leghorns, and one mean, bad to the bone Leghorn rooster. We got the leghorns when they were already old enough to be in a coop and the Red Stars were full grown hens when we got them. I am going to keep the babies away from the older ones for now. We have to decide if we are going to cull the rooster for safety reasons. I hope my BCM will be a rooster because I have gotten used to the crowing and think I would miss it. I also think the hens would miss their Brewster!

We could move them to DH's garage but I don't want to miss out on all the fun. We are going to look at new coops next Saturday and we want to make the chicken yard a bit bigger before the chicks are old enough to be outside. However if the chicks start to make alot of dust I will have to move them.

If the chicks get too cold will they chirp and raise a ruckus to let me know they need heat?