Removing Heat Lamp

[cnicho05]

Hello,

I am currently new to raising chickens and have confronted a question regarding the process of removing the heat lamp from my brooder/indoor coop. I live in Michigan and the weather is still quite cold to transition my birds outdoors quite yet. I wanted to get an early start on raising them, as our summers here are short, so I built an indoor brooder/coop large enough to hold all of my birds throughout the last two months.

When I purchased my birds I picked four Rhode Island Red's and two Jersey Giants. I had these birds roughly 3-4 weeks before adding an additional four bantam birds to my family. Since I have never raised bantam chickens before I was unsure when it would be safe to remove the heat lamp which is currently installed in their indoor coop. The temperature in the coop, without the lamp, is 68-72*F throughout the entire day and night.

Overall, the original birds I purchased are 5-6 weeks old and the bantams are 3 weeks old.

I removed the heat lamp for a short period today (roughly an hour) to see how the birds would react. I was surprised to see that they seemed to huddle together as if they were cold. I wasn't sure if this was the problem or if they simply wanted to sleep now that the light was off...

I know it is too cold to place my birds outdoors but when should I start to remove the heat lamp while they are indoors? Furthermore, when can I move these same birds into a garage environment where the temperature is roughly 40-45*F throughout the day?

Thanks...

 

[gatorshark75]

Hello,

I am currently new to raising chickens and have confronted a question regarding the process of removing the heat lamp from my brooder/indoor coop. I live in Michigan and the weather is still quite cold to transition my birds outdoors quite yet. I wanted to get an early start on raising them, as our summers here are short, so I built an indoor brooder/coop large enough to hold all of my birds throughout the last two months.

When I purchased my birds I picked four Rhode Island Red's and two Jersey Giants. I had these birds roughly 3-4 weeks before adding an additional four bantam birds to my family. Since I have never raised bantam chickens before I was unsure when it would be safe to remove the heat lamp which is currently installed in their indoor coop. The temperature in the coop, without the lamp, is 68-72*F throughout the entire day and night.

Overall, the original birds I purchased are 5-6 weeks old and the bantams are 3 weeks old.

I removed the heat lamp for a short period today (roughly an hour) to see how the birds would react. I was surprised to see that they seemed to huddle together as if they were cold. I wasn't sure if this was the problem or if they simply wanted to sleep now that the light was off...

I know it is too cold to place my birds outdoors but when should I start to remove the heat lamp while they are indoors? Furthermore, when can I move these same birds into a garage environment where the temperature is roughly 40-45*F throughout the day?

Thanks...

they need to be kept at around the mid 90s until about one month old but watch the chicks if they are huddled up under the light they are cold if they are as far away from the light as they can get they are hot if they are acting normal and are quiet they are comfortable

 

[cnicho05]

I guess I'm not worried about my older ones but rather the bantams which I now have. I've never raised them before and based on their small size I didn't know if they would need the lamp longer than normal.

 

[gatorshark75]

I guess I'm not worried about my older ones but rather the bantams which I now have. I've never raised them before and based on their small size I didn't know if they would need the lamp longer than normal.

they shouldn't need it any longer than any other breed i keep the lights on all my chicks and watch their behavior and usually at 1 month old they are ready to go to the outside grow out coop and that depends on the outside air temp

 

[crazyfeathers]

I'm in Wisconsin, my girls are going on 4 weeks. My chicks are in the house with a heat lamp we keep our furnance set at 68. I was also wondering if I can remove the light, I have been moving it higher and they are feathering out nicely. I guess trial and error is what I am going to try, I just don't want to lose any I love them all

 

[cnicho05]

I feel the same with my birds...if I was lose one now I would be starting new in the middle of summer...which I don't want to do...

When I did remove my heat lamp I was curious if the birds were simply tired of the 24/7 light shinning on them throughout the last few weeks. One thing I've noticed about my birds is that they don't sleep at night...but are actually really active. Since they are not use to the day/night periods of the day I felt like them laying together and, what seemed like sleeping, was normal for the light being removed.

 

[Fred's Hens]

You can also lower the wattage, not just raise the lamp.

You can use a red light bulb. Lowes, Home Depot, etc. At 4 weeks, the infrared type bulbs are often too hot. Plus, it is important to slowly acclimate the chicks to lower and lower ambient temperatures. You want them to get used to 80F and then 75F. You'll need to move them outside and don't want a sudden, abrupt plunging into cold nightime temps, even common in June sometimes.


These bulbs often come in 75 watt, 90 watt, 100 watt, etc. These are just festive flood lights for decorative purposes. These supply much less intense heat than the typical 250watt light sold for chicks. If you brood out chicks in Michigan, as I do, these bulbs are highly valuable. They lower your electric bill and help the chicks adjust to cooler environments as you step them down, step them down, until you move them on out.

 

[melroseladi]

I was using a heat plate in an indoor brooder, wire dog kennel. At about 2.5 to 3 weeks old I had other chicks hatching and could not get another heat plate due to back order. My chicks had already been sleeping around the outside edge of the heat plate. I removed the heat plate from them to use with the new chicks. Older chicks did great. Indoor temp stays around 70. New chicks are two weeks old and are rarely sleeping under the heat plate now. They seem to use it more as a hiding place when they get startled then for heat.
I think we over think the chicks need for hot temps once they are a couple weeks old. My mama hens have their chicks out in freezing temps at 3 days old and they do fine, after a couple weeks the only time they are under their mom is at night and I think that is more for protection then anything.

Penny

 

[cnicho05]

I fully agree with your statement about over thinking the heat requirements chicks really need...

I feel as if my chicks will do completely fine if I was to remove the heat lamp all together as the temperature stays around 70*F throughout the day and night. I also believe this would allow the chicks to get on a better sleep schedule rather than being completely active during the nights (keeping me awake). I only question this subject since it seems to be one which is covered quite extensively by others...

I think I will begin to slowly remove the heat source throughout the remainder of the week and try little or no heat lamp next week. That will place my youngest chicks at 4-5 weeks old...

Thanks everyone...

 

[crazyfeathers]

I tend to agree with your line of thinking Penny. I think I may turn off the light for an hour every couple of hours and see what the chicks do.
My chicks are also very active at night, I know I'd go crazy if I couldn't sleep in the dark but then again I'm not a chicken LOL. I have 12 chicks in my brooder, astrolorps, red stars, black stars, Easter eggers, and a mystery chick that I'm praying is not a Cornish.