Why don't chicks with moms get cold?

[3riverschick]

Last season I had 3 chicks hatched by a broody in freezing Feb. Out in the unheated coop. She kept them warm just fine and they grew up just fine. I kept expecting dead chicks each morning when I went out only to discover them peeking out from underneath Mama hen, smile. They would run out to eat and drink, then run back underneath their mother.
Best,
Karen

 

[MeepBeep]

which is another reason to use an appropriately sized brooder.....those little totes so many want to use simply don't give enough room for ANY variation in temp zones.

I beg to differ, with the appropriate heating source and heating amount you can get plenty of temperature variance in a small brooder, you just need to pay attention...

The problem arises when people use a small brooder combined with a huge amount of heat and possibly combined with any already hot environment... I know that many feed stores push 250W brooder bulbs but that is really overkill for most brooders, especially when they mount it close to the chicks and in a small space or if it's 80°+ ambient temp already...

Using a broody 'cave' like Blooie above uses will work in just about any sized brooder, even very small or large ones... And adjusting the heat source to the size of the brooder will also work, no need for a huge amount of heat in most cases...

For example right now I have a few 5 day old bantam chicks in a 10 gallon fish tank (a small brooder by any standard) in my house... AC in the house is set at 72°, I have an aluminum clamp light with a 60W bulb mounted about 3" above the 10 gallon tank centered over the back right corner so only part of the heat is actually going in the tank, in that corner it is about 100° while the opposite left front corner is only about 80° giving them 20° of variation in that small of an area ... The three chicks spend most of their time camped in the center of the tank where they are happy with the give or take 90° temps... And those chicks are my temperature gauge, if I see them migrating as far away from the heat source as possible I know it's too much and the opposite holds true to some degree, but I pay less attention them piling under the heat source as I have found many times (after measuring the temps) that they are just being drama queens and want to be extra toasty...

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yeah, I was going to mention that a lot of people successfully raise a lot of chicks in those little brooders; totes, aquariums, things like that. It helps a lot if you are inside where the temperature is constant, not varying like the weather does outside. I don’t know how you would do it outside with the temperature variations in that kind of brooder.

Excess heat is dangerous to the chicks, it’s dangerous to people and dogs too, but the chicks have a tolerance for a temperature range. I’ve had chicks with a broody or in my outside brooder go through some pretty warm weather OK. Still, extremes at either end are dangerous, hot or cold. That’s why it is so much easier to me to provide a large brooder with one end warm enough and plenty of room to get to a cooler area so they can self-regulate. I just don’t have to worry about it. And by the brooder being outside where the far end does cool off a lot, they feather out and acclimate so much faster and can handle the power going out or such as that much earlier, just like they do when a broody hen raises them.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

I never said it was not possible to be successful, wad only punting or that there is fat less *room for error* when one is trying to put a 250 watt heat lamp over that small space....something we have seen play or right here in posts from folks who post asking why their chocks are in distress. A larger area allows for more wiggle room if you do happen to have your heart a bit too high