How do you wean your chick off the heat lamp?

[weesy68]

How soon can i remove a heat lamp from my chick's brooder? Right now she is the only one I am hand raising, we have one more possibly viable egg, so she has no-one to cuddle her to keep warm. Should I lower the temperature bit by bit, or do I just wait for a certain age to take the lamp away entirely?

 

[fwschrom]

Raise your lamp bit by bit to reduce temps. Right now its pretty hot here so I would only need the lamp for the first two weeks and at night.

 

[D'Angelo N Va.]

Well really it depends on how hot it is there and if you only have one chick in the brooder you just need a low wattage bulb, and when it is feathered out some, I just turn the lamps off, providing it is warm enough outside. I started by turning it off during the day and on at night sometimes..but this is Va. and the day temps are easily 95-100 and sometimes the nights aren't much better.

 

[Mahonri]

At this time of year... we just take them outside... and hope the heat doesn't kill them.