What temperature should my brooder be

[Egg king]

Hi
I would like to know what temperature should my brooder be for my first, second,third,fourth,fifth and sixth week

 

[azygous]

You aren't heating the brooder. The brooder should be on the cool side and of ample size that the chicks can shed excess heat. The heat source only acts like a small heater for the chicks to warm up under. And all the conventional heat guidelines are wrong, calling for much higher temps than is good for the chicks.

You will gauge the heat in two ways. One way, the more important, is to watch your chicks. If they are desperately huddling together under the heat, they are cold and need it to be warmer. If they are scattered to the far extremes of the brooder and possibly panting, they are dangerously hot and there is no room for them to shed heat. In that case, you need to raise the heat source.

The second way, but not as accurate as the first, is to lay a thermometer on the floor of your brooder directly beneath the heat source. It shouldn't be warmer than 85F in the first week, especially if you are brooding indoors where the ambient temp is also warm.

Then you can lower the temp by around 5F each week thereafter. But watching the chicks' behavior is your best gauge. Here's something not many people know - by age three weeks, chicks don't need any heat during the day. By age five weeks, they are done needing heat and can move into the coop.

I assume you are planning to use a heat lamp. There are better methods of heating chicks now. I urge you to explore them. They are all much safer than heat lamps and carry less risk of the chicks getting overheated and dying from it. Here's one. https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...d-in-the-brooder-picture-heavy-update.956958/

 

[BarnyardChaos]

I had just started a response, when this appeared. 'Nuff said!!!

 

[picklestheduck]

You aren't heating the brooder. The brooder should be on the cool side and of ample size that the chicks can shed excess heat. The heat source only acts like a small heater for the chicks to warm up under. And all the conventional heat guidelines are wrong, calling for much higher temps than is good for the chicks.

You will gauge the heat in two ways. One way, the more important, is to watch your chicks. If they are desperately huddling together under the heat, they are cold and need it to be warmer. If they are scattered to the far extremes of the brooder and possibly panting, they are dangerously hot and there is no room for them to shed heat. In that case, you need to raise the heat source.

The second way, but not as accurate as the first, is to lay a thermometer on the floor of your brooder directly beneath the heat source. It shouldn't be warmer than 85F in the first week, especially if you are brooding indoors where the ambient temp is also warm.

Then you can lower the temp by around 5F each week thereafter. But watching the chicks' behavior is your best gauge. Here's something not many people know - by age three weeks, chicks don't need any heat during the day. By age five weeks, they are done needing heat and can move into the coop.

I assume you are planning to use a heat lamp. There are better methods of heating chicks now. I urge you to explore them. They are all much safer than heat lamps and carry less risk of the chicks getting overheated and dying from it. Here's one. https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...d-in-the-brooder-picture-heavy-update.956958/

 

[NatJ]

I would like to know what temperature should my brooder be for my first, second,third,fourth,fifth and sixth week

I've seen guidelines calling for 95F the first week, and others (like @azygous above) calling for as low as 85F in the first week. Those are about the same as 35C and 30C.

In all cases, that temperature is meant to be the warmest area in the brooder, where the chicks can warm up when they are cold. You should not have the entire brooder at that temperatue.

The chicks should have some space that is the same temperature as the house or outdoors where the brooder is located, and there will also be some space between the two temperatures. That lets the chicks regulate their own temperature by going back and forth between the warm areas and cool areas.

Most advice says to reduce the heat in the warm part by 5 degrees Fahrenheit (about 2 or 3 degrees Celsius) each week. Personally, I feel that it is more important to be sure there is a LARGE cool area, and then it doesn't matter if the warm area stays just as warm-- the chicks will avoid the heat as they get bigger and grow more feathers.

When the chicks are no longer using the heat, you can remove it. That happens at different ages, depending on what temperature you have in your climate at the time, and it's also affected by how fast the chicks grow their feathers (some can be much slower than others.)

watch your chicks. If they are desperately huddling together under the heat, they are cold and need it to be warmer. If they are scattered to the far extremes of the brooder and possibly panting, they are dangerously hot and there is no room for them to shed heat.

I agree. This is the best way to check the temperature.
You can use a thermometer to get it about right at first, but once you have chicks it's much easier and more accurate to just look at their behavior.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Most advice says to reduce the heat in the warm part by 5 degrees Fahrenheit (about 2 or 3 degrees Celsius) each week. Personally, I feel that it is more important to be sure there is a LARGE cool area, and then it doesn't matter if the warm area stays just as warm-- the chicks will avoid the heat as they get bigger and grow more feathers.

Bingo! When a broody hen is raising chicks the world does not cool off 5 degrees Fahrenheit each week because they are older. They can handle those warmer temperatures (within reason) as long ss they can find shady areas or lay in the dirt which is normally cooler than the air temperature. It's when they can't cool off that you run inro problems.

My brooder is in the coop. In winter I put chicks in there straight from the incubator, even if it is below freezing. I keep one end toasty warm and let the far end cool off as it will, sometimes there is ice in it. If it is cold that stay on the warm end. If it warms up tremendously, which it does, they move to the cooler end. Many people would be surprised at how much time they spend in the colder end, then go to the warmer end to warm up. Or spend time in the warm end then go cool off when they need to.

How cool should one portion of your brooder be? Probably ambient. How warm should the warmest part of your brooder be? Warm enough so they don't act cold in the coolest temperatures. It can be warmer as long as they can go cool off when they need to.

 

[azygous]

It's really all just common sense once you realize you aren't baking a cake, just providing a warm-up spot for chicks.

Like @Ridgerunner , my new chicks get put outside, usually in early spring when the temps are still diving into the freeze-zone and days aren't getting out of the 50s. They use a heating pad system where the heat print under the pad is no higher than 85F.

Even day-old chicks will spend the majority of the time running around their brooding pen even though the temps force me to wear a warm jacket. When the night temp dives to 32F, they are snug under their heating pad. In fact, a year ago, I got some free end-of-chick days chciks at Tractor Supply that spent one night at 32F outside their heating pad with no ill effects.

People worry needlessly that their chicks are warm enough when they should worry that their chicks are too warm and may be subjected to a hot brooder much longer than is healthy for them. Many people here continue to heat their brooders even though their chicks are two frickin' months old when chicks past five weeks are usually feathered out enough they need no heat at all.

 

[Egg king]

Ok thanks to all of you people
Hopefully it will work out for me
Ill put it at 35 degreesCelsius 1st week and then every week drop 3 degress Celsius and definitely i will monitor their behaviour

 

[NatJ]

Ok thanks to all of you people
Hopefully it will work out for me
Ill put it at 35 degreesCelsius 1st week and then every week drop 3 degress Celsius and definitely i will monitor their behaviour

That sounds like a good starting point, and monitoring their behavior will let you know whether it's right for your chicks in your climate with your brooder setup.

 

[Greengirljmt]

I just set up this great dog crate that I picked up at the Restore. The main space is at about 70F and the chicks are very happy hanging out in that space most of the time. They like to nap under the electric mama but more and more they’re comfortable just dropping where they are. Healthy and happy!