Heat Lamp/ my crazy morning (advice needed)

[sane cat lady]

yesterday i bought 4 sexed blue and black English Orpington chicks about 4 weeks of age, I set the brooder up in our bedroom because it is the quietest room in the house and my husband and i had a discussion about whether the 4 week old chicks needed a heat lamp or were old enough for room tempurature, we decided to err on the side of causion and put a heat lamp on one side of the brooder... fast forward to this morning my husband got up with the kids because i got home from work at 12:30 last night and he let our daughter into the bedroom because she wanted to snuggle in bed with me weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell she did not crawl into bed with me but instead went over to the brooder to check out the chickens I woke up because she was crying over a burned finger that she had touched to the heat lamp and moments later smelled burning jumped up to find that she had burned/melted something plastic onto the heat lamp. I unplugged the lamp and stuck it in the sink so it could cool down and stop smoking

here is where I need advice, are my 4 week old pullets old enough to go without a heat lamp? they will stay in our house for probably another month or more until the weather levels out and we keep our home fairly warm so i would love to know if i can go without the rather stressful dangerous tool.

 

[McGobs]

Day old chicks need good heat...almost sauna like heat. Right around 90-95 degrees. You can take it down 5 degree's each week till they don't need it anymore.

I've never been one to keep track of stuff like that. The best way to tell if they need the heat is to watch the chicks. If they group up under the light...they need it. If they start spacing out away from the light..then they don't need it as much. Its gonna be one of those "use your best judgement" things.

They are a lot hardier than you may think. Taking the light away early probably won't do any harm to them...especially if they are going to be indoors for another month.

 

[fiddlebanshee]

It depends on the chickens and on how warm your house is. Theoretically 4 week old chickens need about 80-85 degrees. But I have found that the chicks I raised always did better with less heat than that, so your house maybe warm enough. Try it out, observe them. If they are peeping loudly and huddled together they are too cold. If they are pressed to the edges of the brooder they are too hot.

If they are a bit cold, you can probably get by with a normal 60W household bulb in stead of a heatlamp. A desklamp with its arm over the brooder would be fine. You most certainly do not need a 250W red heatlamp. Way too hot for them.

yesterday i bought 4 sexed blue and black English Orpington chicks about 4 weeks of age, I set the brooder up in our bedroom because it is the quietest room in the house and my husband and i had a discussion about whether the 4 week old chicks needed a heat lamp or were old enough for room tempurature, we decided to err on the side of causion and put a heat lamp on one side of the brooder... fast forward to this morning my husband got up with the kids because i got home from work at 12:30 last night and he let our daughter into the bedroom because she wanted to snuggle in bed with me weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell she did not crawl into bed with me but instead went over to the brooder to check out the chickens I woke up because she was crying over a burned finger that she had touched to the heat lamp and moments later smelled burning jumped up to find that she had burned/melted something plastic onto the heat lamp. I unplugged the lamp and stuck it in the sink so it could cool down and stop smoking

here is where I need advice, are my 4 week old pullets old enough to go without a heat lamp? they will stay in our house for probably another month or more until the weather levels out and we keep our home fairly warm so i would love to know if i can go without the rather stressful dangerous tool.

 

[sane cat lady]

Thank you for the input i was worried that the heat lamp would be too hot for them