What age do I take the heat lamp away in the UK? Less hot over here:)

[pgpoultry]

Also from the UK (Wales)...in the mountains,generally coldish, wet and windy.

My chicks from the incubator stay next door to the Aga stove....underfloor heating! without a heat lamp (in a rat cage....get's better doesn't it?). The last hatch I had are La flèche who really feathered in fast. At four and a half weeks they were outside in the warmer part of the day and at night inside on the floor in an unheated room. They are thriving.

Normally chicks need some form of heat in British temperatures until about 5-6 weeks of age.

 

[Time-Out]

Quote:
Mine are in a 'small' degu cage. About the size of a rat cage lol. Don't you find they out-grow it really quickly? Mine are already running everywhere, bumping into things, throwing poos and sawdust out of the cage everywhere...
I saw another user on here had a set up I really liked, so I'm going to try replicating it. We're buying a paddling pool tonight (£3.99 at Argos) and some sort of chicken wire (that we need to put under a fence anyway). It's big enough for the feed, water, electric chicken, a few perches amd space to run around like children; tall enough to save me from vacuuming every day and cheap enough to keep the OH happy! I have an electric mattress cover that I normally use to heat tubs of fish when I'm shipping, so the pool could sit on that when I turn the electric hen off.

It sounds like Kent has stolen our Summer... It's been nothing but wind and cloud since those two nice weeks in April. Fancy sending some north, Spaceranger?

 

[spaceranger]

Lol Kent has been soo warm but we've had a good amount of rain too! My lil un doesn't shake but she does cheep a lot! think maybe i should get a heat lamp just incase?

 

[Time-Out]

You could get an electric hen 'just in case'. They seem cheaper to buy than heat lamps and are certainly cheaper to run. I think I only paid £25.99 for mine. I wouldn't believe what it says about brooding 30 chicks, though.
I've had lots of comments about how noisey the chicks are when I'm on the phone... I think they're just a chatty bunch. We were thinking of naming two Theo and Stubbs after Birds of a Feather. They're just as noisey!

 

[spaceranger]

Lol Polly pocket is our orphans name as she sits in my pocket whilst i do the housework! although husband now refers to her as that noisey chicken!

 

[MuckyPuppy]

We are in the UK - Wiltshire - I removed the heat lamp from their indoor brooder by the time they were 3 weeks and we have had our chicks outside since they were 4 weeks (inside at night). They are now 5 weeks old and doing really well.

I think I must have blinked because I missed summer.

 

[Bantam Username]

Thanks everyone.