If you have ever raised chicks or ducklings, then you know that for the first several weeks after they hatch, they require heat. Because they are unable to regulate their body temperature, it is necessary to provide them with an area that has very warm temperatures to keep them from dying of hypothermia. The traditional brooder heat source used is a heat lamp. Over time we have come to believe that there are better, safer alternative heat sources. Our preferred alternative heat source for brooding chicks is what we are going to share with you today.
Why not heat lamps?
First and foremost. Heat lamps can be very dangerous. Even if you are careful when using one, they are a huge fire hazard. The bulbs get extremely hot and can ignite things that touch them on fire. This can be dust that accumulated on them, or some shavings or a feather that blew up into them. Alternatively, they could get knocked down. The reality is that countless fires have been caused by heat lamps.
Additionally, because heat lamps are so hot something as simple as a drop of cold water from your ducklings splashing about can cause them to shatter spraying glass everywhere. Or a chick could fly up into the lamp and get badly burned.
Heat lamps also provide light 24 hours a day which isn’t ideal. Essentially all animals are born with a natural circadian rhythm. Having light on around the clock can disrupt this natural rhythm, and can affect development. This is why they warn you against using white light heat lamps and most heat lamps are red.
Lastly, heat lamps require that you have a reasonably warm room. In very cold areas, they often do not have the ability to create enough heat to keep the temperatures high enough for just hatched chicks. If the temperatures get too cold during the night the chicks can pile on each other and crush one another to death. This often means you have to raise chicks in your house, and nobody wants that. Though cute little things, they are loud, messy and stinky.
So what if you could avoid all these pitfalls?
You can. There are alternatives out there. You might have seen one of the most common alternatives, a brooder plate, next to the heat lamps at the feed store. There are more and more brooder plates that you see being used. They work well and chicks like them. Most importantly they are safe. They do not reach the high temperatures that heat lamps do.
Unfortunately, they are often small, and can be shockingly expensive. This can make it prohibitively expensive if you wish to raise a large number of chicks or choose to raise larger birds like ducklings or goslings. Also, just like heat lamps, brooder plates often do not produce enough heat to be used in a cold room.
A cheaper alternative to a brooder plate that many people use is a heat mat for small animals. This is inexpensive, simple, and provides a warm surface for chicks to lay on. Just like brooder plates, they are safe, but also like brooder plates, it can be difficult to keep the chicks warm enough in a cool room.
We felt that neither heat lamps, brooder plates or heat mats met our needs.
We want to be able to raise our poultry outside in an unheated greenhouse while it is still frosting at night. Heat lamps, brooder plates, and heat mats would not allow us to do this. So, we decided that we needed to think outside of the box. Incidentally, the solution we came up with was something we endearingly call the ‘Mother Box’.
The problem with heat lamps, brooder plates, and heat mats is that there is nothing to trap the heat. The heat rises up and dissipates into the cold air of the room making it difficult to maintain the 90 degree temperatures in the brooder that chicks require. Our solution was to take some hints from a mother bird.
If you have ever watched chicks with their mother, you probably noticed that they run out to do chick things, and when they get cold, they will run back under her to warm up. Using this technique, birds can successfully raise chicks at very cold temperature. So to emulate this we created a well-insulated Mother Box.
This simple, cheap solution works remarkably well for us.
To build our Mother Box prototypes, we used cardboard boxes, but a plastic tote that is easy to wash would be better. We simply took a box that was about 12 x 12 x 8, cut a door hole in the side of it about 5” wide and 4” tall. Then we thoroughly wrapped the box with two layers of silver bubble wrap insulation, and set it on a heat mat. We found a box of this size would hold 15-20 chicks comfortably.
The big question was of course: What would the chicks think of the Mother Box?
We introduced the Mother Box to a mixed batch of recently hatched chicks and goslings. At first we had to shove them under the box, but once they realized it was warm inside, they were popping in and out to alternately eat and then warm up.
The first night as the light started to fade and the temperatures started to fall we found almost every single one of them contentedly sprawled out under the box, and we also helped a few stragglers find their way. We checked on them several times that night as the temperatures fell. Every time they were still contentedly sleeping. The next morning chicks were popping in and out eating breakfast in the chilly morning air. Success!
This worked so well that we created a Mother Box 2.0 for the transition to the coop. Mother Box 2.0 is much larger, and unheated. It relies only upon the body heat of the partially feathered chicks.
As the chicks grew we added a second box so that they still all had ample space to get inside.
When our batch of Mother Box test chicks outgrew their brooder space, we apprehensively moved the partially feathered chicks to our coop. It was early spring so nighttime temperatures were still low, and we did not have any easy way to get electricity to the coop for a heat source.
For this transition, we created Mother Box 2.0. This time we used a box about 2 feet long, 18” wide and 1 foot tall. We made it exactly the same way minus the heat source. It was large enough for all of the chicks to fit inside together. And it worked. They quickly figured out the new box and come night fall they were all happily sleeping under it.
We found that this method worked for us to raise chicks, ducklings and goslings in temperatures down close to freezing. We have also found that the chicks raised this way required less heat for a shorter amount of time than those raised under heat lamps.
Some things to keep in mind
Just like with a heat lamp, it is important to check chick behavior to determine if they are warm enough. Don’t just rely on a thermometer, and what the internet tells you the temperature should be. If they are warm and content, they will be laying spaced out and not trying to pile on top of each other. Also keep in mind that this method will likely work better with a larger amount of chicks than just 2 or 3. For this heat method to work, you are relying partially on trapping the body heat the chicks are making. Understandably, 15 chicks will make a lot more body heat than 3 and will be better able to keep warm.
On the same line of thinking, we think it is important to size your Mother Box appropriately. It needs to be big enough that all the chicks will fit comfortably. It also needs to be big enough that they have space to do some growing, but not so big that enough heat cannot be retained. This is why we started with one 12 x 12 box, and then added a second one as the chicks outgrew the first box.
Lastly, if you are planning to use this method to brood chicks in a cold environment, make sure to check on them repeatedly to ensure that they are warm enough. Also equally importantly, make sure everyone makes it into the box to sleep. The first few nights we had to help a few stragglers find their way home.
We hope that you have a successful chick hatching and rearing season, and we hope that this has given you some new ideas to try if you are unsatisfied with other methods you have tried.
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