At what age do chicks no longer use a brooder plate?

[EmmaDonovan]

My Bielefelders are about a month old and in an outdoor brooder. It's 1:45 AM and 48F/8.8C outside. None are sleeping under the brooder plate. There are six of them and they still fit under the plate together but they are in a loose group in a front corner of the brooder, opposite the plate. The plate is working fine, I checked it. I've been raising it as they grow, keeping it at back height.

It's been rainy so the brooder is tarped. It isn't wet anywhere inside and it isn't windy. The Bielefelders don't seem stressed or unhappy. I didn't see any signs that a predator was around. They have plenty of food and water and tons of pine shavings for bedding.

My headlamp lit up the brooder when I checked on them and they became very active, moving around, eating and drinking, running up to see if I had treats. I picked up one girl and put her under the brooder plate and she just popped right back out.

I won't remove the brooder plate, I want it to be there whenever they choose to use it, but around what age do chicks generally not need to use a brooder plate at those nighttime temps?

 

[DobieLover]

Remove the brooder plate. They obviously don't need it.

All these hard and fast rules that people give on what the temperature needs to be week by week as the chicks grow are not rules. They are guidelines and I find them to be unrealistic.

I raised my very first batch of chicks using a brooder plate in my garage and the temps were never as warm as recommended by 'The Rule Book'. The chicks did just fine.

The second batch of chicks were raised with a brooder plate in the built-in brooder in my coop in May in NY. Temps would regularly dip below freezing at night. Again, the chicks were fine. Here they are on a morning when the temperature was 23F.

They were 1 week old and there they are, out in 23 degree weather zipping around the brooder. There are several of them still under the brooder plate covered with a towel.

Every subsequent chick to enter my flock has been broody hatched and raised. They would regularly come out and zip around and eat whatever mom was offering them and would run back under her when they got chilled.

Your chicks are letting you know that they don't need supplemental heat any longer.

You can provide them a huddle box laid on it's side with the top flap hanging down. Tuck it into a corner of the brooder or your coop if you have it finished and bank it with fluffy dry bedding and have a thick layer of bedding in the box. If they get chilled they will huddle up in the box and stay perfectly warm and comfortable.

 

[EmmaDonovan]

Great info, thank you.

We have lots of Amazon boxes, I'll use one as a huddle box for them.

 

[SoCal Chicken Mama]

I keep asking the same question. My brooder is 85 degrees and only has two height settings. I had it at the top one from the beginning, because my (3 day old) Easter Egger was much taller than the other chicks. They always slept under it when they were inside, (AC on for us - no AC vent in the room they were brooding in). But they wouldn't stay inside after week 1, they started flying around and trying to get out of the spare bathroom. I put them outside in the coop during the day (90 degree weather) and brought them in at night a few days. (it's 50-65 at night here in the SoCal "Inland Empire", close to the desert, but not desert). They never want to go upstairs (into the enclosed coop, with the brooder inside), they start huddling together in the pet crate at bedtime and I have to catch them and put them inside. I do this for two reasons. 1. I don't think it's good for predators or any nocturnal creatures to be able to see them at night. 2. I don't think they know that it's going to get a lot colder late at night. They are only 3 weeks old, and none of them have any feathers on their heads or bellies, which seems to be one sign they are ready to move out of the brooder. They usually are sleeping under it when I open the door in the morning. And they immediately quiet when I put them in it at night. They can get away from it if they want. They make a huge mess with the water and food at night, and poop more (on top of the brooder, especially, which is gross!) than they do all day long. I was told not to take away the food and water at night until they are out of the brooder.

 

[EastLaneChick]

I keep asking the same question. My brooder is 85 degrees and only has two height settings. I had it at the top one from the beginning, because my (3 day old) Easter Egger was much taller than the other chicks. They always slept under it when they were inside, (AC on for us - no AC vent in the room they were brooding in). But they wouldn't stay inside after week 1, they started flying around and trying to get out of the spare bathroom. I put them outside in the coop during the day (90 degree weather) and brought them in at night a few days. (it's 50-65 at night here in the SoCal "Inland Empire", close to the desert, but not desert). They never want to go upstairs (into the enclosed coop, with the brooder inside), they start huddling together in the pet crate at bedtime and I have to catch them and put them inside. I do this for two reasons. 1. I don't think it's good for predators or any nocturnal creatures to be able to see them at night. 2. I don't think they know that it's going to get a lot colder late at night. They are only 3 weeks old, and none of them have any feathers on their heads or bellies, which seems to be one sign they are ready to move out of the brooder. They usually are sleeping under it when I open the door in the morning. And they immediately quiet when I put them in it at night. They can get away from it if they want. They make a huge mess with the water and food at night, and poop more (on top of the brooder, especially, which is gross!) than they do all day long. I was told not to take away the food and water at night until they are out of the brooder.