In caring for your chicks, it might help you if you can understand why a baby chick needs heat, and what kind of heat is best.
Chicks produce body heat from eating food just as we do. However, they lack the ability to regulate it because they only have a thin covering of down. Until they grow in all their insulating feathers, by age four to five weeks, they need help regulating their temperature.
So we provide a heat source for them to warm under when they lose body heat. Ideally, a broody hen provides this service. As a chick chills after running around playing and eating and drinking, it scoots under the broody hen to suck some of her heat into its own little body. Then it's off and running and playing again until next time it begins to chill.
The best sort of heat would be one that mimics a broody hen - contact heat from above, so the chick can pull the needed heat into its body, then leave once it gets its "fill". A heating pad "cave" fills this bill. The next best source of heat would be one like a "wooly hen" where it prevents chicks from heat loss. This depends on a chick being able to eat enough food to fire up its own body heat, so diet is crucial. But it works best when numerous chicks are using it since they all contribute heat to the effort. That thread is over on the Managing your Flock forum.
The next best, and easiest for many people, is a heat lamp. But these devices have their own problems. A 250 watt lamp is often much too hot for just a very small number of chicks. Overheating is a real danger unless you have plenty of cool space for chicks to shed excess heat. It's also bright and stressful.
A hot water bottle can work if you rig it efficiently so a chick can make maximum contact with it, but not get burned. It shouldn't be any hotter than what would burn your hand. But even the best quality hot water bottles need recharging ever few hours as they cool down.
If you're going to buy a heat lamp, I would recommend you buy a heating pad instead. It will be cheaper in the long run and better for your chicks. Study the thread on Mama Heating Pad for the Brooder on this forum for details.
Chicks produce body heat from eating food just as we do. However, they lack the ability to regulate it because they only have a thin covering of down. Until they grow in all their insulating feathers, by age four to five weeks, they need help regulating their temperature.
So we provide a heat source for them to warm under when they lose body heat. Ideally, a broody hen provides this service. As a chick chills after running around playing and eating and drinking, it scoots under the broody hen to suck some of her heat into its own little body. Then it's off and running and playing again until next time it begins to chill.
The best sort of heat would be one that mimics a broody hen - contact heat from above, so the chick can pull the needed heat into its body, then leave once it gets its "fill". A heating pad "cave" fills this bill. The next best source of heat would be one like a "wooly hen" where it prevents chicks from heat loss. This depends on a chick being able to eat enough food to fire up its own body heat, so diet is crucial. But it works best when numerous chicks are using it since they all contribute heat to the effort. That thread is over on the Managing your Flock forum.
The next best, and easiest for many people, is a heat lamp. But these devices have their own problems. A 250 watt lamp is often much too hot for just a very small number of chicks. Overheating is a real danger unless you have plenty of cool space for chicks to shed excess heat. It's also bright and stressful.
A hot water bottle can work if you rig it efficiently so a chick can make maximum contact with it, but not get burned. It shouldn't be any hotter than what would burn your hand. But even the best quality hot water bottles need recharging ever few hours as they cool down.
If you're going to buy a heat lamp, I would recommend you buy a heating pad instead. It will be cheaper in the long run and better for your chicks. Study the thread on Mama Heating Pad for the Brooder on this forum for details.
