Our house gets fairly cold at night, not exactly how cold, but the temp in the brooder was 87* when I got up at 8:00 AM and the light (100 W standard) very low in the box. It is 10:15 AM now and the temp has finally reached 97*. I have the lamp sitting on top of the chicken wire instead of in the box. Should I trade out the 100 W standard white for the 250 W red brooder at night time?? Then I am afraid it would get to hot. I watched the heat last night before going to bed around 11:00 and the temp was holding steady at 95*. Sometimes I think it is easier hatching.
How were the chicks acting when the temperature was lower? That's what I'd use to gauge whether a change needs to be made. If they seemed content, I'd leave it alone. If they were stressed and piling, then I'd use a slightly higher wattage at night. Not 250 but maybe 150.
They weren't piling up on each other, but they weren't spread about either. They didn't seem like they were cold. I will go get a 150 watt bulb though just in case.
You mentioned using a 100 watt standard bulb at night. You should really use a red or infra red heat lamp as it is calming to the chicks and will prevent them picking at each other, which happens with a white light, even if you are only using it part of the time. Chicks can see infra red light so they do not need additional light at night. I use a 75 watt infra red heat lamp, which has me getting up in the middle of the night to adjust the height for proper temps! But I find as the chicks get older, it is easier to adjust the heat of the brooder with a smaller wattage bulb.
IMO... no. Here is the reason why: I recently got an ecoglow brooder from Brinsea ( greatest thing on God's green earth...don't have one, check it out! 60 bucks and worth every cent.... OK enough of the infromerical.) The panel is only about 85-90. The chicks aren't always under there, they self regulate. I was just talking about in another post yesterday how I noticed that chicks really don't need as much heat as people think. They do fine with the radiant heat panel and there is no way it gets as hot as a heat lamp. They are also only under there when they sleep at night and to warm up from time to time. Most of the time they are just running around my 70 degree house in the brooder. They shouldn't freeze. Don't worry!
