Help sexing approximately 5 week old chicks

[EvansMeXo]

lazy gardener said: ↑
How old are the younger chicks, and what are your day and night temps? It is not healthy for your 5 week old chicks to be under a heat lamp. You can easily stick a regular bulb in the heat lamp socket. In summer weather, your chicks could very easily be weaned from heat at 3 weeks old, if you give them a huddle box. Do you have a coop?



IMO, it is not healthy because there should be a progressive weaning from heat. What are your night time temps where the pullets are? In your situation, I'd put the coop ready ones and the 3 week old chicks together, no heat at all. Put the littles in a brooder space by themselves. Or, you could even do an appliance box, with a 60W light bulb at one end to provide heat for the littles. How many 5 day old chicks do you have? In the summer, I expect ALL of your chicks would be just fine without any heat, if you provided a wool hen or a huddle box.



I've had outdoor (heating pad) brooded chicks wean themselves from heat completely at 3 - 4 weeks with spring time night time temps getting down into 30's, occasional frosts, and day time temps varying from mid 70's (we call that a heat wave here in the spring!) to mid 50's.

Okay, so I'm an idiot but I just realiZed I could keep the heat lamp off and turn the heat in the room up to a certain temperature.. is this better for the older ones than the heat lamp? Will it be fine for the youngest? Their now 1- 1 week old 2- 3 week olds and 1- 4 week old cockerel for the young ones, my male is almost fully feathered but sleeps with the littles. The warmest spot in the brooder is about 75, the lamp is at one end, not shining directly into the boxes but just outside

 

[tjs]

I partitioned off a part of my coop as a brooder and put in a heating pad heater. I received day 2 day old chicks and they never used the heater so at a week old I took it out. They are doing great, active eating, drinking, and growing. Have doubled in size in just over a week. Never any indication of being cold and no bunching up. Has been in the 80's during the day and 70's at night.

 

[lazy gardener]

Okay, so I'm an idiot but I just realiZed I could keep the heat lamp off and turn the heat in the room up to a certain temperature.. is this better for the older ones than the heat lamp? Will it be fine for the youngest? Their now 1- 1 week old 2- 3 week olds and 1- 4 week old cockerel for the young ones, my male is almost fully feathered but sleeps with the littles. The warmest spot in the brooder is about 75, the lamp is at one end, not shining directly into the boxes but just outside

Nope. You are not an idiot! You are learning! Huge difference! Your 3 and 4 week olds should not have any extra heat at all (I'm assuming you have them in your house.

The only one who needs any heat at all is the 1 week old. And she may very well get all the heat she needs in the house by snuggling with the older chicks. However, if I were dealing with that many chicks, and had a single 1 week old, my preference would be to use a heating pad cave. (I have not used a heat lamp for a number of years, after finding out how much easier and more natural, and more safe a heating pad is.) Second choice would be to make a wool hen, and use that exclusively in the house for all of them. The difficulty with heating a single chick is that a single bird of that age can't generate much heat. If you had 4 or more, they would be better able to meet their heat needs if they had a huddle box or wool hen. But a single one... not so much. It will require a lot of monitoring on your part to get it right for the single one. If she's not yelling, if she's acting comfortable, she's probably fine. Third choice would be a heat lamp with a low wattage bulb. I would put a 60 W bulb (or less!) in the heat lamp and put it in the brooder so it only heats a very tiny foot print. I would also put a wire shroud under the bulb to prevent chicks from contacting it, and perhaps put wire around the top of it so they can't jump up and land on top of it since it would be hanging low.

Also remember that every day, the little ones require less heat than they did the week before. In the second week, it's time to start turning the heat off for a few minutes, increasing that time until by the time they are 3 weeks old, they have the heat off all day (if in the house). I have not brooded in my house for years, due to the dander. Chicks are much more resilient than we give them credit for. Consider a broody hen. Her chicks dart under her for a quick warm up, but then they are out running around in what ever the outside temps happen to be. Some times, those temps can be very cold, and many folks tell of baby chicks out frolicking in the snow.

The link to Blooie's article about heating pad brooding can be found in my signature line.