Let's see photos of your brooders!

[Beekissed]

I've never measured the temps in a brooder...funny, huh? Just used common sense and chick behavior to get it right and it always seems to work. I can't even imagine trying to maintain ambient temps of a certain level in my big outside brooder.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't use one either, but someone just starting out usually needs a comfort level to start with. Then when they get the experience they realize the chicks will tell you all you need to know. But they can't read chick language to start with. Sort of walk before you run.

I don't even try to get the temperature right in my brooder. Heat one end warm enough and let the rest cool off. As long as they can get away from the heat, they'll find their own comfort level. If they are huddling under the heat source, you need to warm it up a bit. If they are lining the wall as far from the heat as they can get, they are too warm. I'm talking about when they are playing. They'll probably sleep pretty near the heat source in a group..

A couple of summers ago in that 100+ heat wave, I turned the daytime heat off at 2 days out of the incubator. I turned the nighttime heat of at 5 days. They told me they didn't need it and they didn't.

 

[Beekissed]

That's how I do it too. Just watch how they use the light and adjust accordingly. I like an early weaning from the light if I can get it...I think it makes for an earlier feathering and tougher chick.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I think giving them a cooler area in the brooder does that, and yeah, I agree it is important. Sometimes that far end of my brooder gets pretty cool. The food and water is in a warner area, though not a real warn area in cold weather.

A few years ago with some fall chicks, I kept them under heat at one end until they were 5 weeks old. Then I put them in an unheated grow-out coop with the overnight lows in the mid 40's. A few nights later it got down into the mid 20s. They weren't even 6 weeks old and they handled it fine. If they hadn't been in that cold area of the brooder, I don't think they would have fared as well.

I look at it like a broody hen. She doesn't heat up the universe for her chicks. She provides them a warm place when they need it. That's what I try to do with my brooder, provide one area that is warm enough and them let then be chickens.

 

[Beekissed]

Exactly! I always keep a cold end of the brooder too. When I let them out of the brooder at 2 wks and into the big area and out on range I still leave a corner of the brooder intact with a light on for rainy, chilly days and at night~for sunny days it is turned off in the daytime..that's what sunlight is for. That way they are out in the ambient temps but can still run back to the corner for a quick warm up. It's just a more natural way than providing even heat throughout the brooder.

 

[North Jax Hens]

Threw this together yesterday. 55gal plastic tote with the top panels cut out and wire screen to allow air flow and keep the other critters out. The thermometer is temporary, just trying to get a feel for the lamp hight.

 

[Beekissed]

You might want to get that water and feed up on a pedestal and out of the shavings. It'll help you out a bit. How many chicks you putting in that?

 

[North Jax Hens]

You might want to get that water and feed up on a pedestal and out of the shavings. It'll help you out a bit. How many chicks you putting in that?

Thanks for the input. I was concerned about the shavings getting in there. This is going to be home for 4 BO chicks.

 

[Beekissed]

Looks like it will work!

My first set of chicks were brooded in a Rubbermaid tote too...the kind that slips under the bed and it made it big but short, so I had to place wire fencing over the top. Worked out just fine. I just used a desk lamp for that one.

 

[AshVaz11]

Hello I am a new timer. Do you need a humidity thermometer for the chicks