heat lamps and chicks...

[aart]

Here's my notes on chick heat:

They need to be pretty warm(~85-90F on the brooder floor right under the lamp and 10-20 degrees cooler at the other end of brooder) for the first day or two, especially if they have been shipped, until they get to eating, drinking and moving around well. But after that it's best to keep them as cool as possible for optimal feather growth and quicker acclimation to outside temps. A lot of chick illnesses are attributed to too warm of a brooder. I do think it's a good idea to use a thermometer on the floor of the brooder to check the temps, especially when new at brooding, later I still use it but more out of curiosity than need.


The best indicator of heat levels is to watch their behavior:
-If they are huddled/piled up right under the lamp and cheeping very loudly, they are too cold.
-If they are spread out on the absolute edges of the brooder as far from the lamp as possible, panting and/or cheeping very loudly, they are too hot.
-If they sleep around the edge of the lamp calmly just next to each other and spend time running all around the brooder they are juuuust right!


The lamp is best at one end of the brooder with food/water at the other cooler end of the brooder, so they can get away from the heat or be under it as needed. Wattage of 'heat' bulb depends on size of brooder and ambient temperature of room brooder is in. Regular incandescent bulbs can be used, you might not need a 'heat bulb'. You can get red colored incandescent bulbs at a reptile supply source. A dimmer extension cord is an excellent way to adjust the output of the bulb to change the heat without changing the height of the lamp.



Or you could go with a heat plate, commercially made or DIY: http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/pseudo-brooder-heater-plate

 

[Ridgerunner]

When I give advice on this I'm extremely conservative. That's because there is just too much I usually don't know. That goes a lot further than just knowing temperatures, though knowing that is an important variable. What kind of conditions are they in? Do they have good ventilation and good wind protection. A huddle box or woolly hen or some other way to keep warm? How many are there to keep each other warm? Have they been acclimated at all?

I'm also aware that I'm not just talking to the poster. There are a lot of people that read these threads, a lot if not most don't have the experience to know what is important and what is not. That's why they are here. I think that is why most of the guidelines on here are pretty darn conservative. Even if you mess up a lot of things you still have a chance to be OK. I'll compare this to what we say about integration. In my situation where I raise the chicks with the flock and have a lot of room, I just turn the chicks loose when they can handle the weather. I have multiple feeding and watering stations but other than that I just turn them loose. I don't even hang around and observe. But when we advise people what to do we add a long list of things. That's because their circumstances are different and it's an extremely conservative approach that will keep most people out of trouble.

I've seen way too much with my broody hens raising chicks to believe that the guidelines are anywhere close to risky. But there is another side to it. Just because they can survive and thrive in lower temperatures doesn't mean they have to. I've seen broody hens raise chicks in a heat wave where the overnight lows were in the upper 80's. Those chicks turned out fine too. I'm not going to argue about the benefits of giving them access to cooler temperatures, I believe in them too. But I'm not going to call them necessary. Better maybe but not necessary. If they can't do it I'm not going to try to make then feel guilty for not doing it just because it would be better.

I think most of you know I strongly advocate keeping one spot warm enough and let the rest cool off as it will. I find chicks straight out of the incubator know to stay in the warm spot when the far end of my brooder is below freezing. There are all kinds of ways to provide that warm spot. I try to push for results more than method. Whether you brood in the house or outside if you use a heat lamp that means the brooder needs to be big enough so the far end can cool down. That's not as important with a heating pad, heating plate, or some of the other methods. If you are in a climate controlled area that's a lot easier to do with a heat lamp than if you are outside where you have to accommodate temperature swings as big as 60 Fahrenheit.

A lot of chicks have successfully been raised in people's homes with a heat lamp in aquariums or various bins. It can be done because it has been done. But the tighter your conditions the harder it is. I think it is a whole lot less stressful if you can let the chicks regulate themselves instead of you having worry about keeping the small area at some perfect temperature.

I have to get moving that's enough waxing philosophy this morning.