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

[Bantam Username]

I haven't hatched any chicks yet, I am putting them in to incubate next week but am trying to get as much info as possible before I do so I know more or less what to expect. Most people on here seem to be in really hot climates so at this sort of time of year, and in the UK what age is best to keep the chicks under heat til?

 

[saddina]

untill they're fully feathered. Example during the day we have 100 degrees in the house, so no lamp. nights get down to 70's so they get the lightt for the cool hours, and none during the day. once thier tummy is fully feathered you should be ok.

 

[Imp]

Till they are about 4 weeks old. Start off at about 85*F to 90*F the first week. Then drop the temp about 5*F per week. At about 4 weeks old they should be at room temp. If you have them outside, maybe a bit longer.

Imp- I'll leave it up to you to do the conversion to celsius. Too late here to think.

I'm not in a hot climate.

 

[Bantam Username]

Thanks very much, I'm trying to learn as much as I can so I'm not scrabbling around for info there and then.

 

[Rachy]

Hi, I'm in the UK.
My chicks were inside until they were 7 weeks old, I turned the lamp off at 6 weeks. They were pretty much fully feathered then and it was during that recent hot spell. Hope that helps. I was totally indecisive about taking the lamp away (hence it being much longer than suggested) and then I just did it and they were fine

Have a read of my blog. It's my account of a newbie chicken keeper in the UK. It might help...or not

 

[Chickangel79]

HI UK here too, mine are normally indoors til about 4 weeks, depending on the weather outside and how many I had hatch, The more I have seems to keep each other warm outside. Lamp off during the day about 3 weeks, and if its nice they have the brooder outside for the best part. I try to put them fully out (baby rabbit run) at 4 weeks if the nights are warm.

 

[Judy]

To a great extent you can tell by how they act, if your brooder is large enough to have warm and cool spots. If cool they will stay near the heat, if warm they will avoid it, if much too cool they will pile up and can suffocate the chick on the bottom of the pile. Good luck!

 

[Bantam Username]

Thanks, Rachy I have just read your blog which I enjoyed immensley ( no idea how to spell that one, my spelling just gets worse), but I read it from top to bottom before I realised that I'd read it the wrong way round. Lol.

 

[Time-Out]

I've got my first chicks still in their brooder. I use an electric hen. Because their brooder is in fact a cage, it's awkward to get in to raise the heat source, so I recently started turning it off in the day. The room they're in gets around 25 degrees by the afternoon. It's 23.8 right now! The chicks seem quite happy. They sleep under it at night and run around all day. I'm hoping to move them into bigger accommodation this week, where I'll be able to raise the heat source, so they don't burn their heads. I've also been taking them outisde a bit every other day. It's quite cool out, but I reckon chicks with hens go out, so it'll toughen them up a bit

Sure enough, they're three weeks old now and feathering out nicely! Downside... they're getting the hang of this 'flying' business lol

 

[spaceranger]

Hi
I'm brooding one rejected chick indoors and havent got a heat lamp i use a snugglesafe pet hot waterbottle thing from my vets and chick seems fine with that and as we have a nice lil heat wave going on in kent at the moment the house is nice and wam anyway, the only difference i have noticed is she isn't feathering as quickly as the ones outdoors so maybe she's not warm enough??? will try out a lamp i think!