How long under heat lamp? Pheasant/Guinea/turkey question (Duck)

[PQ]

New to hatching out Pheasants, Guineas, and ducks. I need to know when and how long under the lamp they need to be.
I have 3 Golden Pheasant chicks
2 Pearl Guinea chicks
1 Bourbon Red chick
1 Runner Duck chick
I have them indoors the temp stays about 70* in the house
Thanks

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

It depends on the age of the bird. Fresh out of the hatcher we use a 250 watt heat lamp about 18 inches above the surface of the brooder. and start raising it from there, I raise it about every 4th or 5th day. I have no idea what temp it is, I watch the birds and let them tell me where to put the heat. If they are directly under the light they are cold, if on the outer edges it's to hot. If they are milling around all over just right. It also depends on the outside temp - last weekend we got some pheasant chicks and it was in the upper 80's so the light was much higher that it would have been in the spring when it was in the 50's. One other factor is the size of your brooder and the number of birds in it, they put off alot of heat themselves.

Once they don't need the big heat lamp we go to a 100watt regular light bulb and go thru the process again from low to high.

To avoid getting "thank you" cards for such a high electric bill from our local electric company I try to get them off the 250 watt heat as quick as possible and not chill the birds.

Steve in NC

 

[PQ]

Sorry age is 1 week 3 days today.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

At one week ours would still be under the big heat lamp.

Steve

 

[PQ]

Thanks Steve, at what age is 70* ok for them?

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

There is no real set age for brooder temp. The chicks and ducklings and poults don't read the directions and rules that they should follow to make it easy on us.

Over time you keep raising the heat lamp and the temp in the brooder will be the same as the outside.

You will find that ducklings and goslings need the least amount of heat - they are tough.
The bigger/ more feathered breeds of chicks don't need as much
keets and poults need the most or should I say the longest amout of heat.

We are on our first week of pheasants so the jury is still out on how they will work out, they have just about doubled in size so I would say they are doing just fine.

Steve

 

[PQ]

Thank again Steve! We will just keep raising the heat lamp and see how they do.