Keeping Temperature steady in Heat of summer and mixing chicks

[Jjfester]

There may be tons of posts answering these questions, but I am new here and still having trouble figuring out how to find my way around or search for what I need.

I have 3 8 Day old chicks. 1 Barred Rock, and 2 Australorps. I live in WA state and generally it isn't very warm, but we are having a heat wave right now and all through the next week.

Currently we are trying to keep our chicken's brooder at between 85 and 90. Our problem is that our house is getting hotter during the day then the temperature we need to be weening the chickens on to, but at night it is going down into the 60's so we are having trouble keeping it at a consistent weening temperature. Also the weather is likely to go back down to the 70's in another week or so.

Question 1: How do you deal with this kind of situation?

Question 2: Also we are adding a Light Brahma chick on Saturday and it will be 7 Days old while these will be 12 Days. I do not want the chick to be by itself, will it be okay in the brooder with the slightly older chicks who may need a bit lower temperature?

Question 3, since we are having warmer weather I had thought about letting the chicks outside in the yard which is fenced in. Do I need to put them in a smaller cage or can I let them free range for a short time? How hard would it be to collect them back up from the yard? If we put the water and feeder from their brooder outside would they stay close to it?

I apologize if these are very silly questions. Help appreciated.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

The easiest thing to do is not try to maintain a constant temperature in the brooder. It is counter productive.
Try to replicate a mother hen. Provide a hot spot and lots of cools space. The chicks will find their comfort zone and be healthier in the long run.
Do as I say and the new chick will be fine.
Free range them.
You may need to confine them in a small pen so you can collect them when it's time for bed.

 

[Jjfester]

Thank you, that is helpful. That is basically what we have been trying to do, but they keep going back to the area with the light to sleep even when it is 100 degrees or more in that area of the brooder.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Chicks tend to pile up in a warm spot for bedtime. That doesn't necessarily mean they're cold.
I had grown roosters sleep in a pile when it was 90F outside. They would have been just as comfortable at 40.

 

[Jjfester]

Thank you again for the replies, this information has been extremely useful.

 

[azygous]

You're making yourself crazy over this heat issue. It's not a science. It's not complicated. In fact, toss out that stupid, useless heat schedule guideline.

Now, imagine you have a bunch of little chicks. Oh wait, you do. And yes, go ahead and put the new one right in with the others even if they're a week older. It makes no difference at their ages. Now, imagine they're on a camp-out and they need a campfire to warm themselves. It's your job to provide a large enough campfire so they can get warm when they begin to feel chilled, which is what happens to chicks. They are not cookies baking in an oven.

This campfire can be anything that puts out heat. A 250 watt lamp for very large brooders like stock tanks or barns. A 100 watt light bulb or even a 60 watt, for smaller brooders, especially if they're in the home, which is already warm. Or my recent, now confirmed favorite, a heating pad rigged into a cave, simulating a broody hen.

The key to any heat is to make certain that there is plenty of space for the chicks to get away from the heat source once they've warmed themselves up.

If you have a heat wave going on, and your house is heating up to 100F or more, your job is to provide a cool region for your chicks to cool down. This would be a challenge when they get bigger and live outdoors, too. Cool water, a fan to cool the air down, plenty of ventilation, etc.

When it cools down at night, nothing about their need for a heat source and space to move away from it has changed. They will adjust their sleeping locations according to the amount of heat they need, the younger ones closer to the heat and the older ones farther away.

See? It's not that complicated, after all.

 

[TRMFAM]

Jjfester, I know it is nerve wracking having your first, second or even third batch of baby chicks...you are taking care of a life and want to do the best you can and not be responsible for a fatality. Deep breath, trust me, I get it! azygous advice is right on...picture how baby chicks survive without us. They have a mother hen they run under and warm up and then run and go on adventures until they get cold again. You just need to provide that mother hen heat source they can use when they want to. At night, if they get too hot they will move.

I struggled much the same way you are when our girls were 1 week old and we had a heat wave...

I did not see anyone respond about putting them out during the day. I would just be careful of wind and them becoming too cool as they will not have the mother hen type heat source to warm back up with. I did not see you post the daytime highs you were experiencing outside just that inside your house was 100*. I would not leave them outside too long...we took ours out for 20 mins or so after they were a week old and it was 95* here...I just made sure to keep a little box in the run they could get in if they wanted. Oddly enough several times at the end of 20 mins half were in the box piled up sleeping.

You are doing great and are going to be a wonderful mother to your girls...

 

[Jjfester]

The last few days have only been about 80 degrees, but our house seems to get hotter inside than it is outside in the later afternoon/evening. But with them having the heat lamp it makes their area spike up over the 80 degrees into the 100's at times. I have seen a few forecasts showing that it is going to get up to 97 by this weekend, which is a rarity for us in my area of Washington State.

I have mostly been doing what was suggested and just moving it up and down slightly in the daytime vs evening, but the system we have set up will only allow a tad bit of variety in the up and down motion. We are using a 100 Watt Infrared reptile bulb since our original 250 watt heat lamp bulb was bringing it up to 114 degrees.

I was just worried when they were continuing to sleep under the 100 degree are with the light and was worried they wouldn't get used to cooler temperatures.

By Thursday it should be 88 so I would like to try to let them outside for a while so they can see more of the world than just a big black plastic box.

Thank you for all your suggestions everyone. If I knew how to post pictures I would.

 

[CaseyV]

You're making yourself crazy over this heat issue. It's not a science. It's not complicated. In fact, toss out that stupid, useless heat schedule guideline.

Now, imagine you have a bunch of little chicks. Oh wait, you do. And yes, go ahead and put the new one right in with the others even if they're a week older. It makes no difference at their ages. Now, imagine they're on a camp-out and they need a campfire to warm themselves. It's your job to provide a large enough campfire so they can get warm when they begin to feel chilled, which is what happens to chicks. They are not cookies baking in an oven.

This campfire can be anything that puts out heat. A 250 watt lamp for very large brooders like stock tanks or barns. A 100 watt light bulb or even a 60 watt, for smaller brooders, especially if they're in the home, which is already warm. Or my recent, now confirmed favorite, a heating pad rigged into a cave, simulating a broody hen.

The key to any heat is to make certain that there is plenty of space for the chicks to get away from the heat source once they've warmed themselves up.

If you have a heat wave going on, and your house is heating up to 100F or more, your job is to provide a cool region for your chicks to cool down. This would be a challenge when they get bigger and live outdoors, too. Cool water, a fan to cool the air down, plenty of ventilation, etc.

When it cools down at night, nothing about their need for a heat source and space to move away from it has changed. They will adjust their sleeping locations according to the amount of heat they need, the younger ones closer to the heat and the older ones farther away.

See? It's not that complicated, after all.

Thank you for this azygous, it's not my first time keeping chicks but we are in a heat wave too. 100+ with humidity and all I've ever been taught is to keep all chicks on 250w, which makes my brood room feel like death valley. We are building a brooder with the lights inside instead of using clamp ons. I was thinking about putting 50w in every other socket as they will be sectioned off. it has a wire floor and a wire front.

 

[azygous]

It appears to me that many of you people are so fixated on heat lamps as being an integral part of raising chicks, you don't stop to think about why you have them. It's to provide heat when the room is too cold.

If the heat wave is heating the room where the chicks are to 80-100F, you don't need any heat at all. Turn off the lamp! Throw away the thermometer. Watch the chicks. If they begin to huddle together in a tight little pile, then turn the lamp back on.

As for going outdoors, even the youngest chicks can spend time out of their brooder on nice, mild days. I used to take my two-week olds out if the day got up to 70. I would just keep an eye on them and bring them back inside when they showed signs of being chilled, huddling together.

I say used to. Now I raise them outside in their run from the very first, even if it's below freezing. Believe it or not, they can handle it, and even benefit from not being coddled with too much heat.