Topic of the Week - Brooding and supplementing heat for chicks

[Pampered chicken girl]

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There has been a lot of discussions and questions asked on brooding chicks and heating and we thought it'd be handy to have all the questions, answers, and expert opinions together in one thread for reference and discussion.

Please tell us your thoughts and practices when it comes to brooding chicks and supplementing heat. What worked best for you, things to do and NOT to do, etc. We'd especially like your opinions on:

- What temperature is the best for small and growing chicks?
- When is cold too cold?

Well I use a broader plate and move it up when they stop going under

- At what age can they start going outside for short periods and
- At what age can they move outside full-time?

I don't take mine for trips outside...they just move out at 4-6 weeks depending on when they look feathered enough to go. This time it was 4 weeks.

- When do you turn the heat lamp off?

Once they are outside they are fine unless it goes under 70 at night for the first week or 2 outside. I'd it stays above 70 they never need the heat plate again

For a complete list of our Topic of the Week threads, see here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/topic-of-the-week-thread-archive

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Wow, reading through these comments, I’m amazed at how many people use lower than “textbook” temps for their brooders! And y’all are making me feel guilty that I use a plastic tote… I much prefer to use a broody hen (chicks) or Guinea hen (keets) but also need to brood indoors at times. “Conventional wisdom”, aka lots of opinionated people on Facebook, for keets is that they are extremely temperature sensitive and will die if the slightest bit chilled. I’ve never understood this wisdom as my broody hatched keets spend less time being warmed by mom than my hen brooded chicks. I’ve also had keets get accidentally left in the run overnight in the 70s and be fine the next day, so I was sure the “experts” aren’t completely right about keet cold sensitivity. However, when I brood keets in my garage, I do follow the guidelines, with a warm side of the tote at around 100F with a heat lamp and the cool side being closer to 80F. I agree that the heat is worse than cold and just lost 3 keets all at once when my kid left the garage door open and the garage suddenly went from 80F to 100F. The ones that died of heat exhaustion were 3 day keets that had a rough hatch and somehow did not move from under the heat lamp to the cool side of the tote.

More interesting is that I just received my first order of shipped keets, and I suspect it is there that the general impression of extreme keet cold sensitivity originates. Those shipped keets do not thermoregulate like my robust home hatched keets. I have warmer and cooler areas of the tote, but right under the lamp is obviously warmer than the outside. Shipped keets would pile up in big clumps right under the lamp! They would be panting and smothering each other and still be directly under the lamp. For the first few days, if I raised the lamp to lower temperature by ~5 F, or about 95 F at the hottest point and 90 F a foot away, they would clump up and try to smother each other. If I lowered the lamp to raise the temp +5 F, 102 F at hottest point, they would stop clumping but several of the keets would pant. It was very concerning how poorly they were able to regulate their own body temperature as they seemed excessively heat seeking. I’ve now had those shipped keets 4 days, have lost 20% of the group, and they’ve finally started to settle into more normal thermoregulation and behavior. I’ll be handling these very expensive shipped keets with kid gloves for awhile though!

 

[Jester57]

I used the mama heating pad once before, and the chicks learned to go into it every night. Of course, this was back in March, when it was still cold. The chicks I got a week ago have been living in mid-80s daytime temps and high 60s overnight lows and they want to sleep on top of the heating pad. When I checked on them earlier they were all sleeping comfortably, without any chirping. They will stay inside the cave if I put them in there and they're tired enough. I've done this several times and each night I find them all sprawled out on top of the pad. Should I keep shoving them in the cave or just let them figure that out when it starts getting colder?

 

[Antiocheggers]

- At what age can they start going outside for short periods and

As long as I have time to sit and watch them, mine get to be out as young as a couple days. I think it's best to let them get outside and build up immunity to things in the dirt as soon as possible.

- At what age can they move outside full-time?
To stay in the favor of my family ( ) my chicks are outside from pretty much as soon as I get them. They're brooded in a large dog crate with a heat lamp till they're large enough to go in the coop and old enough to not need a heat lamp.

- When do you turn the heat lamp off?

Right now in Florida, the heat lamp is completely unnecessary during the day and most nights for my five Silkie chicks (8 weeks old). I've been leaving it off 24/7 recently, because the way I see it, they would more easily die of excess heat than of lack it.

Totally agree! My baby chicks now 4 week old are in a dog crate out on the back porch. They do real well until about 3:30 when the sun moves towards the back of the house, then they wish I would install an air conditioner. I have a shade over the crate with fans blowing on them . At 105 temperature no one needs a heat lamp. I live in Antioch Florida.

 

[Bernie Bones]

I try to let my hens do the work but when I do incubation chicks need to be kept at around 90 degrees for couple weeks and I believe when in a controlled temperature room you will have great success.

 

[BDutch]

Don’t use a heat lamp or a heating pad with a broody! A broody is the perfect heat source for chicks.

If it’s too cold for adult hens to go outside its not a good time to give eggs to a broody. If you have real cold temperatures in winter it’s better to wait for spring.

 

[Altairsky]

My personal rules:
-NEVER use lamps unless I need to breed 100+ chicks, outdoor. Heating pads are the best of the best for small batches. Just get one of a decent brand and not cheapos from aliexpress. The temperature on the good heating pads is preset, you just plug them and you automatically have happy chicks.
- indoor is fine if you want very tame birds. Those I raised in my kitchen are something else, really. They're more doggos than doggos. They are stinky filthy critters though to have in a kitchen. Raw at least. But the result was worth the mess and I'll do it again if something happens to my chicken doggos.

At 4 weeks they go out with no heat. 5 weeks if nights gets near 0°C. Just give them a shelter (cardboard box) where they can huddle up at night.

 

[BullChick]

Keeping the story short, I picked up some chicks with pasty butt. They were in bad shape. If you find that you are dealing with anything causing health issues (assisted hatch might come with problems too), you might need to pamper those dumb chicks until they are beyond eight weeks old. Mine seriously couldn’t function in the sixties outside when they were feathered. I think I lost a dozen.

 

[Eggs_Over_EZ]

Living in Florida and have a broody hen who hatched 6 last Saturday/Sunday in the coop with all other chickens and one rooster. We placed her and the chicks into a brooder box on Sunday afternoon and put it on our screened porch. The coldest I has gotten is 59 and that is for maybe a minute or two. We are noticing chicks are hanging around the hen but not all under her the last few nights. They are up early and running around. No pasty butt. We want to expose them to the yard but we do have a large racer lurking around. Saw him by the steps of the porch just the other day. We are trying to find a solution. I have to say having a hen raise them makes it way easier. It may just be me but it seems their feathers are coming in faster then chicks we have purchased. Also no pasty butt. Though we observed chicks raised with a heat plate instead of lamps had less cases of pasty butt.

 

[NNYchick]

I guess I don’t really do anything “textbook”. I have never used a heat lamp. For years I used a modified mama hen heat pad. I used a wire shelving, adjustable legs and bungee the heating pad underneath.
Then a couple years ago I bought a sweeter heater and never looked back. I like the ease of cleaning, easy to adjust height, and that I can see everything going on under it.
I have moved them out as young as a week and as late as 4 weeks just depends on how our spring weather is going in northern NY our spring is all over the place temperature wise or when I’m sick of the mess inside. My rule is above freezing at night so I don’t have to deal with frozen waterers or multiple heated waters. I section an area of the coop off that the adults can not get into but the chicks can get out and explore but have a safe place if an adult takes too much interest. I mix age of chicks from different hatches, I find it shows the younger ones about the feeder and waterers.

My sweeter heater in the inside brooder. I had a coworker ask me how I know the temperature under there is enough. I told here in the 7 years I’ve been doing this I have never once measured temperature in my brooder. I just pay attention to the chicks if they come out and eat, not huddled together, or chirping loudly they are good. I think these day olds look pretty content.

This is my outdoor set up. This hen is upset that I blocked where she had chosen to lay eggs and now there are little intruders in there.