Temperature in brooder

[Cindilong]

Hi! I posted about my chicks from Ideal Poultry laying down and dying, no other symptoms. I called their number and they have an option to press to get poultry info. I talked to someone there and she said I shouldn't have a cool end to my brooder. I had told her the first day it was 95 on the floor on the hot end and 80 on the cool end and now that I've had them a week I've lowered it to 90 on the hot end, still 80 on the cool end. That's how I've always done it. She said the ones who are dying must have gone to the cool end and gotten too chilled.

I'm not finding them dead in the cool end. In fact they've all been in the hottest spot when dead. Maybe they went to the cool end and got too cold and then went back to the hot end and died anyway? At any rate she said the brooder shouldn't have a cool end. What do you guys think about that? I've now lost ten of the 35 with one in the process of dying right now.

 

[paneubert]

Is your brooder really large? While they can get chilled and die if the brooder is super big and they wander far from the heat, I don't think that is what is happening.....and it seems like Ideal Poultry is passing the blame on to you from a bad hatch.....

I had a batch of quail I hatched last year that almost died from being chilled in a really large brooder. When it got dark and they got lost from the heat source (was using an IR heat bulb that does not give off any light). I got them back to the heat in time (they were laying down with legs out like they were dead).

You sure they are not overheating and dying? You keep finding them on the hot side....

 

[Cindilong]

Well, nobody seems hot. The healthy ones stand close to each other under the light when they are done running around eating and drinking. Not huddling and squashing each other, but not spread out. And when I pick up the sick ones I've tried placing them farther from the heat and as long as they still have enough energy some will either get up and walk to where it's warmer or crawl if they are farther along in the illness. But not every one - in the beginning stages, when they are just laying down more than the others but still walk quickly if I bug them, in other words when it's obvious they can still move if they want to, some just walk to a halfway warm spot and then sit back down. Some walk away from the heat None have walked all the way to the edge of the cold end but I don't know, it just doesn't seem that they don't like the way the temperature is. Here's a pic. The second light on the end in this pic was just hanging there out of my way while I set up a cage for older chicks, it's not on.

 

[Eggcessive]

The person on the phone is misinformed. Chicks always should have a warm area if using a heat lamp, and a cooler area to get away from the heat. Most chicken raising books say this same thing. They do not need as much heat as we think they do.

When my broody hens have raised chicks during cold weather, the chicks get out and roam around with her, only getting under her to warm up occaionally. I usually use 90 degrees F for my new chicks, and decrease to 85 the second week. I always use a thermometer under the hottest part of the brooder. Even at that I usually have to adjust the height of the lamp between night and day inside my house.

The last few times I brooded, I found that using an Ecoglow20 was such an easy way to brood them without a heat lamp. It mimics a broody hean. However the room temperature needs to be around 70, and I wouldn’t use them outside in cold temps.

 

[Cindilong]

Thanks!