No Heat Lamp - What Age???

[mommto3kiddos]

At what age did you turn the heat lamp off on your chicks???

My girls are 3.5 weeks old and have 75% of their feathers. They are kept in the garage, which doesn't get super cool. I was thinking of turning their lamp off during the day. I didn't do the "move up the lamp every week" thing..

 

[TigerLilly]

I would say it depends a lot on where you live & what the weather is like. I keep mine in the hottest room in the house & after about 2-3 wks they get no heat lamp at all. But I'm in Florida...

 

[TrystInn]

This is actually very easy to figure out. You begin with a 95 degree brooder, knock off 5 degrees each week. When the external daytime temperature matches the brooder temp, you're done providing heat during the day.

At 3 weeks, your brooder should be 80F. If your garage is that temp during the day, you are set. If not, you need to continue to use the heat lamp for awhile. If you cannot pull the lamp up, direct it into a single corner so the chicks can pull away from it.

Reducing heat before its appropriate can make for chicks with compromised immune systems.

 

[3chimama]

I have always shut my heatlamp off at 4weeks old during the day...I turn it back on at night for a few more weeks.

 

[allpeepedout]

I turned mine off periodically starting at 4 weeks, depending on weather, and observed whether they seemed comfortable or not. If they were standing up, peeping loudly, acting unhappy, piling up, etc. then they needed heat. Now at 6 weeks they are heavily but still not fully feathered out and OK entirely without heat with our current weather conditions. They do seem to love basking and being warm.

 

[babyrnlc]

At 3 weeks mine go into the brooder in the shed with two light (when it was cold) And I turned the white one off at night (and just left the red one on), by 4 weeks I just left the light on for a few days at night (then we warmed up) and 4 1/2 weeks the light was off. By 5 weeks they were in the coop.