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
