Brooder Temperature, Week by Week

The box arrived, the peeping is real, and now a small crowd of fluffballs is counting on you to get the heat right. Good news: brooder temperature by week follows a simple pattern, and once you know it, the daily routine gets easy fast.

Chicks can’t regulate their own body temperature for the first few weeks. A mother hen normally does that job; in your brooder, a heat lamp or heat plate does. Below you’ll find a week-by-week chart, where to put the thermometer, and how to read your chicks.

Brooder Temperature by Week: The Chart

A brooder is the warm, enclosed space where chicks live from the day they arrive until they’re feathered enough for the coop. If you’re still putting yours together, our guide to setting up a brooder walks through the box, bedding, feeder, and waterer. Once it’s running, this is the schedule most keepers follow.

The standard rule is to start chicks at 90 to 95°F in week one and drop the temperature about 5°F per week until it matches the surrounding air. Different sources shift these numbers by a few degrees, and some hold 95°F for the first two weeks, so treat the chart as a starting point rather than a law.

Week	Chick age	Temperature under the heat source	What’s happening
1	Days 1 to 7	90 to 95°F	All down, no feathers. Recovering from hatch and shipping.
2	Days 8 to 14	85 to 90°F	Wing feathers start to show.
3	Days 15 to 21	80 to 85°F	Tail and shoulder feathers fill in. More exploring.
4	Days 22 to 28	75 to 80°F	Awkward half-feathered stage. Lots of flapping.
5	Days 29 to 35	70 to 75°F	Most of the body feathered. Heat used mainly at night.
6	Days 36 to 42	65 to 70°F	Close to room temperature. Start weaning off heat.
7 to 8+	Day 43 on	No added heat once fully feathered	Ready for the coop when feathered and nights are mild.

Notice that the temperature is tied to the chicks’ age, not the calendar. If your chicks arrived on a Wednesday, your “week” changes on Wednesdays. Heat is only one part of the first weeks, too; the Baby Chick Care Kit from Hoover’s Hatchery covers feed, water, and litter support for the same stretch.

Where Should You Measure Brooder Temperature?

Measure brooder temperature at chick height, on top of the bedding, directly under the heat source. A thermometer hung high on the wall reads the air up there, not what chicks feel. A digital probe thermometer laid on the bedding works best.

Create a warm zone and a cool zone

The whole brooder should not be 95°F. Put the heat at one end so there’s a gradient: hot directly under the heat, cooler toward the far side. That cooler side lets chicks move away when they’ve warmed up, the same way they would duck out from under a hen. Put the waterer toward the middle or cooler side so the water isn’t heated and the bedding under it stays drier.

Heat lamps vs. heat plates

A heat lamp warms a circle of air and bedding below it, so the reading under the lamp is your guide. A heat plate works differently: chicks tuck under it and get warmth from contact, like snuggling under a hen. With a plate, raise it as chicks grow and follow the manufacturer’s directions rather than chasing an air temperature.

How Can You Tell If Chicks Are Too Hot or Too Cold?

Your chicks are the most accurate thermometer in the brooder: their position and noise tell you whether the heat is right. Check them several times a day during the first week, and at least once after dark, because the room often cools at night.

• Too cold: chicks pile up tightly under the heat, peep loudly and constantly, and don’t want to leave to eat or drink.
• Too hot: chicks crowd the far edges, pant with open beaks, hold their wings slightly away from their bodies, and look droopy.
• Draft: chicks bunch up on one side of the brooder, away from a cold spot or open door.
• Just right: chicks are spread around the brooder, eating, drinking, scratching, and napping in small groups. Some will be under the heat and some won’t.

Chilling matters beyond comfort. Cold, stressed chicks may eat and drink less, and stress in the first days is often linked with problems like pasty butt, where droppings stick and block the vent. Our guide to dealing with pasty butt in baby chicks shows how to spot and clean it.

Shipped chicks have had a big first day. Some keepers add a vitamin and electrolyte supplement such as Electrolytes and Vitamins from Hoover’s Hatchery to the water for the first few days after placement, which is how the product is labeled for use.

How to Lower the Heat Each Week

The easiest way to lower brooder temperature is to raise the heat source a little at a time, then check the reading at chick height and watch the chicks’ response. Small moves beat big ones, and a day or two of adjustment is fine.

1. Pick a weekly day. Match it to the chicks’ age so you remember.
2. Raise a heat lamp a couple of inches, or move a heat plate up one notch.
3. Wait about 30 minutes, then check the thermometer at bedding level under the heat.
4. Watch the chicks. If they huddle hard, lower it back slightly. If they avoid the heat entirely, raise it a bit more.
5. Recheck at night. A reading that works at noon can be too cool at 2 a.m. in a garage or basement.

What Changes the Schedule?

The 5-degrees-per-week rule is a guideline, and season, feathering, and species can all shift it. Here’s what to watch for.

Season and room temperature

A brooder in a warm kitchen in June needs less help from the heat source than one in an unheated garage in March. Winter chicks often need the heat a bit longer at night, while summer chicks may be off heat sooner. If you’re brooding in cold weather, our series on raising chicks in the winter shares what works in a real Iowa setting.

How fast they feather

Feathers are what let chicks hold their own heat, so feathering matters more than the exact day. Some breeds feather faster than others, and individual chicks vary. If a group is still mostly fluff at five weeks, keep the heat on a little longer.

Ducklings, poults, and other birds

Ducklings, turkey poults, keets, and quail follow a similar warm-then-taper pattern, but the numbers differ by species, so use a species-specific guide for them.

Heat Lamp Safety and Power Outages

A heat lamp is a real fire risk, so it should be secured in at least two ways and kept well away from bedding, walls, and anything that can burn. Don’t rely on a clamp alone. Hang the lamp with a chain or wire as a backup, use a guard over the bulb, and never let it touch the brooder. Our article on the warm truth about heat lamps covers the risks in more detail.

Plan for a power outage before it happens, especially in the first two weeks when chicks are most fragile. Keep a backup heat plan in mind, and read our tips on keeping chicks warm when the power goes off so you’re not figuring it out in the dark.

When Can Chicks Stop Using Supplemental Heat?

Most chicks can stop using supplemental heat once they are fully feathered, usually somewhere between 5 and 8 weeks old, and the brooder has already been tapered down to the surrounding temperature. Wean them gently: turn the heat off during the day first, then leave it off at night once they sleep comfortably without huddling.

Moving outdoors is a separate step. Chicks should be feathered, and the outdoor nights should be reasonably close to the temperature they’ve been living in. Our guide on how long chicks should stay in the brooder goes deeper on that move, and it’s the natural next stop on this journey.

Key takeaways

• Week one: 90 to 95°F at chick height under the heat source.
• Lower it about 5°F each week until it matches the room or outdoor air.
• Always keep a cooler zone so chicks can regulate themselves.
• Chick behavior beats the thermometer when the two disagree.
• Secure heat lamps twice and plan for power outages.
• Fully feathered chicks, usually 5 to 8 weeks, no longer need added heat.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is 100 degrees too hot for baby chicks?

Yes, 100°F under the heat source is hotter than most guidelines recommend, even for day-old chicks. The usual target is 90 to 95°F in week one. Short periods at 100°F aren’t automatically harmful if chicks can walk to a cooler area, but if they crowd the edges or pant, raise the heat source until the reading drops.

What temperature should a brooder be for 3-week-old chicks?

For 3-week-old chicks, most keepers aim for about 80 to 85°F directly under the heat source, with the rest of the brooder cooler. By this age chicks have some wing and tail feathers and handle small swings better. Watch their behavior and nudge the heat up or down a few degrees as needed.

Should the whole brooder be the same temperature?

No. A good brooder has a warm zone under the heat source and a cooler zone on the opposite side. This gradient lets chicks move toward or away from the heat as they need, the same way they would under a mother hen. A brooder that is evenly hot everywhere can overheat chicks with no way to escape.

Do chicks need a heat lamp at night if the house is warm?

Young chicks usually still need supplemental heat at night, even indoors, because a warm house is typically 68 to 72°F and week-one chicks need 90°F or more. As chicks grow and the brooder target approaches room temperature, around weeks five and six, you can often turn the heat off during the day first, then at night.

How do I know if my chicks are cold at night?

Cold chicks pile tightly under the heat source and peep loudly instead of settling into quiet sleep. Check them after dark with a dim light. If they’re huddled and noisy, lower the heat source slightly or block drafts. Content chicks at night sleep quietly in loose groups near, but not all crammed under, the heat.

Getting brooder temperature right isn’t about hitting a perfect number every hour. Start warm, taper about 5°F a week, keep a cool zone, and trust what your chicks are telling you. Before long, those fluffballs will be feathered, noisy, and ready for the coop, and you’ll have done the hardest part. If you’re planning ahead for next season, you can browse baby chicks from Hoover’s Hatchery and pick your next breeds early.