Brooder surface temperature vs ambient temperature

[ChcikenDave]

I am raising my very first set of 10 chicks this year in March. I built a brooder from a heating pad - making a little cave open at one end, a temperature sensor, and a relay to turn the heating pad on and off. I read that chicks should be kept at 95°F the first week, 90°F the 2nd, 85°the third week, etc.

** Does this refer to the ambient temperature under the brooder, or the surface temperature of the brooder itself? **

The ambient is about 5°-10° cooler than the surface of the heating pad. I’d like to not lose any chicks if possible. The “cave” is about 1 square foot and the whole brooder is about 12 square feet. Thanks!!

 

[DemeterAD9]

The temp refers to wherever the heat source is concentrated at. Reducing the temperature is to help the chicks adjust to ambient temperatures as their feathers grow in. After about 4 weeks they won't need heat unless you have them outside and it's on the chilly side. This is often around the same time some hens will stop brooding her chicks.

I personally use a heat plate for brooding chicks and it works great IMO. The surface temp is something like 110F and the height is adjustable so the chicks can always have their backs touching the surface (like a hen would). Sounds like that is essentially what you rigged up, the only difference is the heat source for the plate is above the chicks while yours is under them. My heat plates are not temp adjustable so they stay one temp throughout brooding. Chicks will naturally move to and from the heat as they see fit. In my experience the chicks start to sleep away from (or on top of) the heat plate around 2-3 weeks of age.

 

[azygous]

Forget temperatures. When you are on a camping trip, do you fret over how warm to heat the tent or how to make the camp fire put out precisely 98.6F? No. It's plenty good to just have a camp fire to warm yourself over. (This doesn't apply to land yachts and camper trailers. But that's not camping.)

That's what you're doing in a brooder. It doesn't matter what temperature the brooder is or even how warm it is under the heating pad. It's plenty good for the chicks to have a heat source to replace lost body heat. It applies whether the ambient temp is 25F in the brooder or 75F.

How will you know if the chicks are getting enough heat to replace lost body heat? Simple. The chicks will tell you with their behavior. If they are cold, if the heat source isn't adequate, the chicks will all be crowding together trying to ring a little extra heat out of the heating pad cave, not spending any time running around the brooder. If it's more heat than the chicks need, they will be hanging around at the edges of the brooder shedding excess body heat, which is very normal.

A heating pad is very different than a heat lamp. A heat lamp warms by radiant heat. The chicks place their bodies in the path of the radiant heat and it warms them. With a heating pad, they warm themselves by direct contact with the heating pad. Because of this, you will need to accommodate the chicks' rapid growth by raising the heating pad frame each week so it comes into direct contact with their backs.

Many who try the heating pad method of brooding for the first time are surprised when their chicks abandon the heating pad during the day around age three weeks, and abandon it all together at around four or five weeks. That's your tip that your chicks are ready to move into their coop.