Help!!! I dont know how to keep the temp acurate in my brooder??

[Mrs.HENderson]

Hello again

, I feel so dumb when I ask questions. I feel I should know more about raising chicks before I actually go out and get some but ne ways. My hubby and I went and made a wooden brooder. It has newspaper on the bottom with coarse-pine wood shavings on top. We are using a red 250 watt bulb to heat it and using a basic out door thermometer to try and maintain the temp.

What do u think??

This is kinda blurry but this is the inside (is this right??)

Now my questions...

1. Where do we place the thermometer to get an accurate temperature?? We place it directly under the light (lying down) and the temp shoots up to 108. If we place it up right it gets to like 98ish. So what do we do so we are not roasting our chicks?

2. When we get the chicks, do we have to have the brooder covered at all times??

 

[Tala]

Best to have a warm end of the brooder, and a cool end, so the chicks can pick how close to the heat they want to be. Yours looks good, plenty of room at the end away from the lamp!
Ideally directly under the lamp you would want 95*F, and as they move away from the lamp the temp decreases.

You can observe the chicks' behavior to know if they are comfortable or not.
Huddling together, piling on each other and peeping loudly = cold chicks.
Spreading out around the edges of the brooder away from the light and sitting individually with their wings apart from their bodies, panting = hot chicks.

Chicks that appear to be relaxed, dropped over asleeping scattered here and there, some together, some apart, those are comfortable chicks. They might even pass out under the heat lamp and then spread their wings like they are warm, but they are just "sunbathing" and will move out of the light if they get overheated.

 

[Backyard_Chicken_rancher]

ok first of all that may be to much heat for your chicks I use a regular 90 watt light bulb and they love it under the light it stays about 90* to 100* but they only go under it if it gets to cold any other time they run around like a bunch of kids and my brooder is alot bigger then yours. now onto your questions

1. the thermo (outside type 3 bucks at wal-mart) I have is hanging up on the outside wall (cooler area) and it stays about 75*-80* so they don't complain and they are all still alive and running around so I guess I must have it right.

2. I have mine covered all the time because it is out in the barn, On warmer days I open it up and let it air out a little I have hardware cloth covering it but I have a heavy blanket on top of that it keeps the heat in pretty well.

3. to get a true test stick it in the shavings in a cooler area of the brooder nd run the light for 24 hours and then check the thermo and if its to hot lower the wattage or raise the light till you get it right.

Don't forget after the first week you need to lower the temp by 5* every week by raising the lamp or puttin ga dimmer on it but all in all your chicks will tell you what the setting is if it is to hot they will run to the cooler areas and if it is to cold they will be right under it or piled up togther tryin to stay warm if it is freezing so watch them and they will tell you what you need to know.

I hope this helps and good luck to you

ETA: after taking a closerlook at the picture I Hope Those are not CEDAR SHAVINGS!!! if they are GET RID OF THEM THOSE ARE BAD FOR THE CHICKS!!!! PINE SHAVINGS ONLY!!!!!!!

 

[Mrs.HENderson]

Hey you guys r the best.

Thank you so much for ur knowledge.

 

[KCNC06]

Well for the past couple days I've been wondering how important it is to get an accurate temperature in the brooder. I have my first 6 chicks (1 week old) in a brooder in the spare bedroom and they don't seem to care nearly as much about the temperature as I do. I have the red brooder light on one end of the brooder, the thermometer says it's 90 in the area under the lamp, but the chicks don't want to stay under it. They're running around the cage jumping and flapping their little wings like they actually think they're going to start flying. Cutest thing I've ever seen. I chick sat for my mom's chicks one weekend last spring when they went camping...I don't remember her chicks being nearly this active and they were at least a week older than mine are now. Maybe just having more space to run around gives them more opportunity to be silly??

Anyway, is it really that important to make sure they're at whatever temperature they're supposed to be for their age or do you just need to have the higher temperature space available and let them choose to go into the warmer space when they want?

 

[gumpsgirl]

First off, don't EVER feel stupid for asking questions. That is what we are all here for and the only way to learn. We all had to start out at one point and had the same questions that you are having.

Second, the brooder looks great! The only thing I would do differently, is remove the pine shavings (only for the first week) and put paper towels down in the bottom. The reason I do paper towels is so the chicks can figure out where and what their food is and learn the pine shavings are not there for eating. You might not even have to do paper towels for a week, it is just what I do personally. You could probably get by with 3 or 4 days. They should know what food is and isn't by that point.

As far as the temperature goes, I never use a thermometer. I let the chicks and their behavior gauge whether or not they are to hot, to cold, or just right. If the chicks are scattered here and there throughout the brooder, the temp. is just right. If they are huddled together under the heat lamp, they are to cold. If they are all trying to get as far away from the heat lamp as possible, they are to hot. They will be your best thermometer.

 

[elmo]

I raised chicks for the first time last spring, and I kept obsessively checking the temperature in my brooder via remote digital thermometer, even throughout the night. One night, groggily, I reached for the monitor and noticed my temp had spiked up to 108! Yikes! I ran out to our den and dialed back the lamp. Went back to bed. Checked the temp again in about 30 minutes and noticed it had dropped down below 90. Ran out and dialed up the lamp. Checked again in half an hour...yikes! back up to 105! So forth.

It took several sleepless nights before I finally figured out (duh) that the reason my temps were spiking was because the chicks were roosting on the temperature gauge.

 

[KCNC06]

Quote:
I did the same thing last spring when I was chick sitting my mom's chicks!! I kept freaking out about the temperature and eventually noticed the chicks were sitting on the gauges. I'm now realizing that raising any baby creature is similar to raising baby people

you freak out about every little thing the first time around, by the time you get to your second go-around you're more laid back. My first night with the few chicks I have right now, I kept trying to make sure the temperature in the brooder was close to 95 degrees and kept lecturing the chicks that the brooder was the right temperature and they better stop panting...because everything I've read says they're supposed to be kept 90-95 degrees during that first week. The chicks didn't seem to care what I read, they said they were too hot. Sprawled out on their bellies, wings spread out, little beaks open panting. It was actually a little funny to see, but I figured their body language said a lot more about their comfort level than any book could tell me. I backed the light off a little and they seem to be about as happy as can be now.

I quickly learned the thing about the pine shavings vs paper towels too. These little chicks don't seem to have a clear understanding of what is food and what's not food, pretty much the same as any other baby creature. They're pecking at everything..."Is poop food?" "How about my toe" "Cardboard? Is cardboard food?" "Maybe your toe is food." Silly little chicks. I just sit and watch them, giggling about how silly they are. I call my husband in to see how funny they are, apparently it takes a chicken addict to see the humor in the brooder.

 

[Backyard_Chicken_rancher]

Quote:

Oh I have so been here before I realized that I will let the chicks tell me how they feel (to hot or to cold) yeah I wouldnt be following the thermo again I have one in there now so that I know what the temps on the outside wall are so if it gets to cold I move it away form the wall (brooder is in the barn) so I fell your pain and sleeplessness nights.

 

[Backyard_Chicken_rancher]

Quote:
It must,
I call my DW in to see something and she doesn't find the humor in it,She also finds it weird that I can sit and watch my chicks for hours on end. I try to explain the humor in it and how I can watch chick Tv for hours but she just doesn't get it.