Help! Chicks just arrived!

[Rt66Kix]

I ordered some chicks from Buchheit's in February. Major confusion and chaos, but just got a phone call that they had arrived. They are 1-2 weeks old, and I had not been contacted until now because they had my phone number wrong.

The store has been keeping them under a heat lamp since they arrived. The weather here in the St Louis area is now 85 - 90 degrees during the day, and around 72-75 at night.

I have a heating pad I was going to use to make a mother hen pad. However, they've been under a heat lamp since arriving at the store. My question is this-do I keep them under a heat lamp for the next couple of weeks until I can transition them outside, or go ahead and do the heating pad? They will be kept in a garage which is built into the side of a hill, so the temperature there will remain 70-75 degrees 24/7.

Thanks!

 

[Backyard Bruce]

If you're asking that because they have been in a brooder with the heat lamp should you continue with that instead of the heat pad, I don't think it matters one bit.
One caveat, I am new to this as well.
Personally I would go with the heat pad, safer and easier.

 

[PachecoPeeps]

I ordered some chicks from Buchheit's in February. Major confusion and chaos, but just got a phone call that they had arrived. They are 1-2 weeks old, and I had not been contacted until now because they had my phone number wrong.

The store has been keeping them under a heat lamp since they arrived. The weather here in the St Louis area is now 85 - 90 degrees during the day, and around 72-75 at night.

I have a heating pad I was going to use to make a mother hen pad. However, they've been under a heat lamp since arriving at the store. My question is this-do I keep them under a heat lamp for the next couple of weeks until I can transition them outside, or go ahead and do the heating pad? They will be kept in a garage which is built into the side of a hill, so the temperature there will remain 70-75 degrees 24/7.

Thanks!

It will take them a day to get used to the heating pad but you probably won’t need heat very much longer. I usually have mine weaned off by 3 weeks. But that’s what’s nice about the pad because you will know if they don’t need it if they quit using it. Good luck.