How long do chicks stay in the brooder

You should already have a brooder set up and waiting. This is their home for the next month, or longer! The duration they are inside the brooder will depend on the time of year and temperature outside. We’ll talk more about that in the temperature section to follow.

Here are the essential elements of a good chick brooder:

• Structure: A brooder is made from a sturdy container. This could include a large plastic storage tote, plywood box, portable crib (like a Pack N Play) or a dog playpen. In the past, we have used a plastic tote (which they grow out of), as well as homemade plywood boxes with cardboard covering the floor.
• Lid: A cover for the brooder, to keep them in, or keep your other animals out! They get pretty flighty around week three, and can jump out of most brooders if you’re not careful! The cover must be breathable. We usually place wire fencing securely over the top of the brooder.
• Space: When they’re still tiny, an ideal brooder size is about 1-2 square feet per chick, minimum. Remember, they need room to move around, plus space for food and water. So if you had four small chicks, you’d want a minimum of a 4 square foot space.
• More Space: Once they’re 4 weeks old or larger, it is best to upgrade to about 4 square feet of space per chick. When we set up a brooder, we make a 4×4 plywood box, 2 ft tall. For the first few weeks, we keep a divider in the middle, making their space half the size. Then at 3-4 weeks old, we remove the divider and give them free reign of the whole place – a 16 square foot chick palace!
• Litter: The brooder will need litter on the floor. The most common choice is fine wood shavings made of pine, which can be found at your local farm supply or pet store. Do not use splintery wood chips, bark, or any material made from cedar. Cedar oils are toxic to chickens. One issue with pine shavings is that they make a hot mess. Chicks will fling them into their feed and water, which has to be kept as clean as possible. Newspaper is less messy, but isn’t a good choice. It is slippery and can cause a condition called splay leg. An option I learned of more recently are wood, sawdust, or paper pellets. They stay put better, make less of a mess, apparently are super absorbent, and are easy to clean! We plan to use these the next time we have chicks. We have also used puppy pads, taped down into place.
• Location: Keep the brooder somewhere protected from the elements, such as indoors, or in a garage that won’t be subject to extreme temperature swings. Ours have always been in a spare room in the house, tucked away from the cats.
• Other brooder necessities: heat, food, water, and daily cleaning – all discussed in more detail below.

Brooder Temperature & Heat Source

Baby chicks need a constant, safe heat source to keep them the correct temperature at different stages of development. This replaces the heat that they’d otherwise be provided by huddling under their mama hen.

Heat can be provided one of two ways: using a traditional heat lamp, or with a neat little radiant heating plate, made especially for chick brooders. They both have their pros and cons – so let’s discuss.

Heat Lamps

The most affordable option is using a heat lamp. It also warms the entire room and brooder, which some people prefer. However, you MUST ensure it is very, very securely hung. Meaning in way that it cannot tip over into the brooder, and cannot come in contact with other materials. Definitely get the fixture that has a wire cage around the bulb. Brooder lights can and do cause fires. I just heard about a local house fire caused by one a few weeks ago! I mean, think about it… they’re going to be on nearly 24/7 for over a month.

You must also be able to adjust the height of the light, to increase or decrease the temperature of the brooder as needed. In the past, we have used a heat lamp. Utilizing a cymbal stand from Aaron’s drum kit, we were able to hang the light over the brooder in a very sturdy and adjustable manner. We always preferred using a red 250-watt light bulb over the white/clear option. It seemed more mellow for nighttime and sleeping.

Radiant Heat Plate

When we had babies in the past, we hadn’t yet heard about brooderradiant heat plates, but I have seen them more and more recently on Instagram. We may give them a go next time! They’re basically a heated plate on stilts that can be raised as the chicks grow.  The chicks duck under it for warmth – simulating how they’d behave with a mother hen. They come out and play when they’re warm, and return under it to heat up as needed.

The heat plates reportedly use less energy than heat lamps, and pose exponentially less risk for fires. They also receive great reviews online. However, I am seeing suggestions to size up from how many chicks they claim it to be suited for. As chicks grow, they’ll need more space under the structure. Reviewers also suggest getting the version that has a cover on top, which prevents them from perching and pooping on it. I think these could be a great option for inside a house, but may not raise the ambient temperature enough for chicks to be comfortable in a cooler location like a mudroom or garage. They’d probably be under it all the time.

Chick Temperature Requirements

The brooder temperature requirement slowly decreases as chicks become older and their feathers fill in. Their behavior will give you a signal if they’re too cold or too hot! If you’re using a heat lamp and they are trying to get as far away from it as possible, such as staying around the perimeter of the brooder or sleeping away from the light, they are likely too warm. They also sprawl out and are more lethargic when overheated… though they do sprawl out and sleep a lot as babies, regardless! When too hot, they may even pant.

When they’re too cold, chicks may run around and chirp very loudly, or huddle together directly under the light. A comfortable chick will be a nice balance of active and sleepy, and should be able to get closer or further away from the light (or heat plate) freely. Maintain their food and water near the edge of their comfort zone, so they don’t need to be too heated or chilled to get to it.

To help you assess and adjust the temperature, it is important to have a thermometer inside the brooder at the chicks level – though their behavior trumps whatever the thermometer is telling you. Lower or raise your light to get it just right.

The target temperatures for a chick brooder are as follows:

• Week 1: 90-95°F
• Week 2: 85°F
• Week 3: 80°F
• Week 4: 75°F
• Week 5: 70°F (We may start turning off their heat lamp during the day at this time, depending on the temperature in the house)
• Week 6: 65°F (During the week leading up to their 6th birthday, we may remove their heat completely. But they’re still in the house, which is about the right temperature. At 6 weeks old, our weather allows them to move the heck out of their parents house!)

By 6 to 7 weeks old, chicks should be about fully feathered. If so, they can do without supplemental heat. If your outdoor temperatures are warm enough, they can move outside to their coop at this time. Even if the overnight temperatures are in the 50’s, as long as they are mostly fully feathered and are moved to a coop that is not drafty, they will be okay. They’ll huddle together for warmth.

However, if your nighttime temperatures are still in the 30s to low 40s, I would either add a night time heat source in the coop, or wait a little longer to move them out. When we felt bad or nervous about our babies being out that first week, we would warm up long-lasting rice heat packs to nestle down in the coop bedding and heat everything a tad.

Handling Baby Chicks

When chicks are young, it is the best time to form a strong bond with them that can last a lifetime! One tip I read about long ago was this: don’t just suddenly reach down in and pluck them out of their brooder, especially at first. Instead, set your hand down on the floor of the brooder with some crumble feed in it, and let them approach you to explore.

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