I know that the temp should be 95 to start, but I'm having trouble keeping it steady. I have a 250w red bulb suspended above my brooder, and at night it's cold out now (in Michigan,) then during the day it's been in the 70's. The brooder is in my garage. When practicing my setup, before the birds arrived, my thermometer would fluctuate quite a bit as the day went on. I work at night and sleep all morning- I just got the chicks today. I'm worried that I'll either freeze or fry them. Does anyone else have this problem? Any ideas?
I moved my five day and four day olds to an old camper outside that has electric. I just put my brooder (rubbermaid tub) on the table and hung a 60wt. bulb over it in one corner of the tub. They have food, water, heat and out of any drafts. It stays pretty warm in there even without the lamp but not 95` so I adjust the height of the lamp during the daytime and again at night till it warms up more. Of course, it was in the fifties here last night so not too bad. Just get them out of any drafts and under a light they will be fine.
I have the same issues - I raise the lamp a few feet in the morning before I leave for work and drop it at night before bed. They seem to be fine with this. It's not perfect; sometimes in the morning they will be kinda huddled together and in the afternoon they are sometimes a bit too warm, but they have some room to get away from the light so I try to err on the side of a bit too warm. I also went to Petsmart to buy a reptile heater on which you can set a temperature setpoint and it will turn on when needed but I could not find one. Maybe next year. Regards Paul
I think I figured it out for the most part. After all my reading, the answer was in the packaging from McMurray. For anyone else having a problem, they say to just suspend a 250 watt red bulb 18" directly above the chicks. It will be hotter than 95 directly under the bulb, and colder at the edges of the brooder. The chicks will decide on their own where they like it. Seems to work pretty well so far. Thanks for the responses!