In coop brooder questions

[jhoff]

Hi - we have 6 chicks that will be 2 weeks old tomorrow. They are doing well and growing fast and have basically outgrown the in-house brooder we made. Yesterday, we made a separate space for them out in the coop and I have some questions.

• How warm does it really have to be? See pics - I put two lights in the space and put a thermometer under one of them that logs data that I can graph. I see it got down to 78 last night with the outside air temp at 55. It's up to 90 already this morning.
• I see some folks use a mama heating pad. I don't have a heating pad around but I do have a small seedling heating mat that I was thinking I could put UNDER the wood shavings and weigh down with bricks or rocks? It's designed to keep root zone temps 10-20 degrees above ambient. I plugged it in in our house and it read about 100.
• Are the lights I have setup dangerous? Will they fly and roost on them and burn their little feet?

 

[M Brennen]

Hi - we have 6 chicks that will be 2 weeks old tomorrow. They are doing well and growing fast and have basically outgrown the in-house brooder we made. Yesterday, we made a separate space for them out in the coop and I have some questions.

• How warm does it really have to be? See pics - I put two lights in the space and put a thermometer under one of them that logs data that I can graph. I see it got down to 78 last night with the outside air temp at 55. It's up to 90 already this morning.
• I see some folks use a mama heating pad. I don't have a heating pad around but I do have a small seedling heating mat that I was thinking I could put UNDER the wood shavings and weigh down with bricks or rocks? It's designed to keep root zone temps 10-20 degrees above ambient. I plugged it in in our house and it read about 100.
• Are the lights I have setup dangerous? Will they fly and roost on them and burn their little feet?

View attachment 2273386View attachment 2273387View attachment 2273390

At two weeks they do start to fly around and may try to get onto the lights.

 

[jhoff]

At two weeks they do start to fly around and may try to get onto the lights.

They are definitely flying. I'm gonna leave the lights there for now but turn them off and just do the under shavings seedling heating mat.

 

[M Brennen]

I have a similar set up, but used the heat plate this year instead of lights. My box is inside my chicken coop. I love the heat plate, but even so when my birds were 4 days old the outside temperature got into the low 40s and I hadn’t closed the windows. I lost one bird because it got squished in the middle trying to stay warm. Be careful if the outside temperature gets too cold. You could always throw a blanket type covering over the open areas to keep it warm at night.

 

[jhoff]

I have a similar set up, but used the heat plate this year instead of lights. My box is inside my chicken coop. I love the heat plate, but even so when my birds were 4 days old the outside temperature got into the low 40s and I hadn’t closed the windows. I lost one bird because it got squished in the middle trying to stay warm. Be careful if the outside temperature gets too cold. You could always throw a blanket type covering over the open areas to keep it warm at night.

I was thinking about that. Curious to see how long it takes them to find the warm spot. Removed the lights.

 

[aart]

Keep a close eye on them, might have to show them the warm spot.
Make sure the brooder area is protected from any drafts.

Not a fan of floor heating, they can't adjust the temp like they can with a properly placed heat lamp or over-head pad.

 

[M Brennen]

Keep a close eye on them, might have to show them the warm spot.
Make sure the brooder area is protected from any drafts.

Not a fan of floor heating, they can't adjust the temp like they can with a properly placed heat lamp or over-head pad.

I notice that the little ones tend to pile on top of each other at night. Wouldn’t they be able to regulate their temperature by moving from different spots in the pile? My chicks stopped using the heat plate at two weeks and just pile outside the edge of it. Maybe the plate just gives off more heat than they need even though it is raised up pretty high.

 

[M Brennen]

I notice that the little ones tend to pile on top of each other at night. Wouldn’t they be able to regulate their temperature by moving from different spots in the pile? My chicks stopped using the heat plate at two weeks and just pile outside the edge of it. Maybe the plate just gives off more heat than they need even though it is raised up pretty high.

This is my set up. The white on the are plastic feed bags stapled to the top so I can drop them down if I need to at night to protect from a draft.

 

[jhoff]

Better? The only heat bulb I have is a 250w reptile bulb which is way too much for this space. I'll work on rigging up something to cover the wire areas for drafts.

 

[aart]

When I used a 'heat' light in the inside brooder,
I used a 100W red reptile bulb with a dimmer extension cord.
Details here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/aarts-chick-heat-blurb.75619/

My heating pad also has multiple heat settings.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/pseudo-brooder-heater-plate.67729/

There's lots of ways to heat chicks, but care must be taken that they can adjust some themselves. Using a thermometer(except with over-head pads) and their behaviors to judge what works best.