Temperature Under Brooder Plate

[MKetter]

I don’t have chicks yet, but I put an old stock tank in the garage with a brooder plate and placed an electronic thermometer under it. I’ve read that chicks need to start at temperatures in the 90s and reduce by 5° each week. But these articles always spoke about a heat lamp. The temperature under the brooder heating plate was 79°. It seems to me that I need to wait for warmer weather before I get chicks unless something is different with heating plates than with a heat lamp. Since I have no experience with this, can I get some wisdom or advice from someone who knows how brooder heating plates work and the temperature that should be under it? Thank you.

 

[thecatumbrella]

I might be able to help, but I've only done two batches under a heat plate. I have the RentACoop brand, and they tend to run about 120F at the underside. I set the back two legs to be about back height of the tallest chick, then set the front two legs (meaning the direction they'd be entering from) a tick taller. The temperature of the bedding/pads below is typically 85-90F. All my chicks (including bantams) have seemed very comfortable, but I also make sure the room they're in is around 68-72 degrees for the first few days (on the higher end if they've been shipped).

EDIT: Should add that if your plate runs cooler than this (maybe 110-115ish), then it should DEFINITELY be at true back height all the way, or even a tick lower. This will allow the chicks to press up against it safely.

 

[Yardmom]

I have not used a brooder plate. Hopefully more who have will chime in soon. It is my understanding that the chicks are supposed to push directly on them, so it should be slightly cooler on the ground below it

 

[rosemarythyme]

Unless the thermometer is showing you the surface reading, you can just use it to monitor ambient temperature. Ambient temperature for most plates optimally is 50F+, so as long as you meet that mark you're fine.

The plate should be warm to the touch, but not so hot that you can't keep your hand on it. You'll want to set it so the chicks can press against it while sitting or standing (so generally at an angle with 2 legs taller).

The chicks will use the plate to warm up and then come out to cool down, just as they would a mama hen (who incidentally doesn't abide by any sort of "5 degrees a week" benchmark).

 

[MKetter]

My concern is that it’s just too cold to have chicks yet, since the ambient temperature under the brooder heating plate gets down to 79°, it’s probably too cold for the chicks to be out from under it, and they wouldn’t leave it for food or water, and it might not be sufficiently warm underneath.

 

[Yardmom]

It will not be to cold for the chicks to come out from under the plate. The plate is instead of a hen. Hens can raise chicks in the middle of winter. Chicks just go back to the warm place as needed. They do not need to be warm all the time.

 

[K0k0shka]

Brooder plates warm the chicks up via direct touch, not by warming up the air under/around. So measuring the temperature under the plate isn't helpful unless the thermometer is touching the surface of the plate and measuring that. The 90s rule is made up to make life easier and simpler for large scale artificial hatching and brooding operations. But in real life, hens don't heat up the whole coop to 90 degrees, and they tend to go broody and hatch chicks in the spring, when it's still quite cool outside. Yet the chicks do just fine. They go under the hen, between the feathers, and press themselves against her skin to warm up, then go right back outside in cool springtime temperatures. The brooder plate mimics that - brief warm-up sessions by direct touch, then the chicks go back out to explore. I've had a hen hatch chicks while a snow storm swirled outside in mid-April in the Northeast. She took the chicks out of the coop on day 3 and they did absolutely fine with the finicky temperatures oscillating between winter and spring. I've also brooded many batches of chicks with a brooder plate and they did fine, too. I have never used a heat lamp and never will. It's dangerous, and unnatural for the chicks to have bright light 24/7 and no chance to learn to maintain their own body temperature.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

Brooder plates warm the chicks up via direct touch, not by warming up the air under/around. So measuring the temperature under the plate isn't helpful unless the thermometer is touching the surface of the plate and measuring that. The 90s rule is made up to make life easier and simpler for large scale artificial hatching and brooding operations. But in real life, hens don't heat up the whole coop to 90 degrees, and they tend to go broody and hatch chicks in the spring, when it's still quite cool outside. Yet the chicks do just fine. They go under the hen, between the feathers, and press themselves against her skin to warm up, then go right back outside in cool springtime temperatures. The brooder plate mimics that - brief warm-up sessions by direct touch, then the chicks go back out to explore. I've had a hen hatch chicks while a snow storm swirled outside in mid-April in the Northeast. She took the chicks out of the coop on day 3 and they did absolutely fine with the finicky temperatures oscillating between winter and spring. I've also brooded many batches of chicks with a brooder plate and they did fine, too. I have never used a heat lamp and never will. It's dangerous, and unnatural for the chicks to have bright light 24/7 and no chance to learn to maintain their own body temperature.

After raising chickens for years and brooding them out in the barn I 100% agree with this^^^

 

[rosemarythyme]

My concern is that it’s just too cold to have chicks yet, since the ambient temperature under the brooder heating plate gets down to 79°, it’s probably too cold for the chicks to be out from under it, and they wouldn’t leave it for food or water, and it might not be sufficiently warm underneath.

The chicks would strongly disagree with you.

At 79 degrees ambient mine would probably barely want to have anything to do with the heat plate unless it's nap time, they simply don't need as much heat as people think.

 

[MKetter]

Thank you, all, for your replies.