Heating Chicks
Lack of heating or inefficient heating is one of the biggest causes of mortality and why 
chicks do not grow as expected.
Baby chicks cannot regulate their own body temperature until they are at least three weeks old. If it is very cold, they may have to be provided with heat for even longer, in winter up to five weeks old. Watch their behaviour: if they are cold, they crowd together and even burrow underneath each other. Ironically, it will be the strongest chicks that crawl under the others and suffocate to death. In nature they crawl under the mother when they get cold.
In the absence of suitable heating, chicks will use their energy to try and keep warm. This will retard growth as energy provided through feed is diverted to heat generation instead. The economic loss of this can be greater than the cost of appropriate heating.
Heat rises, and if you have a heating source such as a bar-heater pointing upwards (fig.1), and you do not have a well-insulated building (fig.3) that will keep the heat in the room, the chicks are going to get cold. Heaters designed for humans are designed to heat the upper volume in a room with an insulated ceiling. The lower areas where the chicks will be, and humans have their feet, will remain much cooler. Too cold for young chicks.
Heating also uses a lot of energy, which can be expensive. Electricity is less expensive than gas. Heating is also the hidden cost often forgotten, and which can cause a broiler-growing enterprise to make a loss.
There are two options:
- Use heaters that direct the heat downwards onto the chicks themselves (fig.2) or
- Rear the chicks in a well-insulated room that can be efficiently heated in its entirety (fig.3)
The cheapest option for (1) are infrared hanging lamps (fig.2). Infrared is also the most efficient option to heat internal body fluids rather that the ambient air. Using a heatshield with the lamp will greatly increase its efficiency.
If you are using hanging infrared heating lamps, you will ideally need at least one 175-Watt lamp for every 75 chicks or one 250-Watt lamp per 100 chicks. In winter you may need even more lamps in badly insulated corrugated iron structures. Properly insulated chick rearing facilities could save you a lot of money over time.
It is recommended that you only buy Osram of Phillips lamps as the other makes available do not last long and work out more expensive in the end. The 175-Watt lamps also last longer than the 250-Watt lamps because they do not get so hot. Another advantage is that they cause less damage to fittings as a result.
A well-insulated thermostatically controlled heating set-up (fig.3) is ideal and will save you money in the long run. Start with an ambient temperature of about 36°C after hatching. After day three, start reducing the temperature about 1°C per day until the temperature reaches about 26°C This is the ideal temperature at which to rear broilers after their second week. Notwithstanding, continuously monitor the chicks. If they crowd together, they are too cold, and you need to raise the temperature. If they show signs of heat stress such as gasping, lower the temperature.
During week one average about 32°C and during week two about 28°C. Up to 5 weeks the temperature should be at least 26°C. After this it does not really matter as their feathers would have developed to the point where they will be kept warm enough no matter what.
If you do not have a climate-controlled set-up, you will have to watch the behaviour of the chicks to determine if they are cold of not.
Make sure your heat lamps are height adjustable.
- If chicks crowd under light: they are too cold – lower the lamp.
- If chicks move away from light: they are too hot – raise the lamp.
Bear in mind that it is usually colder at night, so work on night-time temperatures.
