Chick Brooder Temperature Chart: Week by Week

Set the chick brooder temperature to 95°F at chick level for week 1, then lower it 5°F each week until it reaches 70°F in week 6. That is the schedule in UMaine Extension bulletin 2219, and Alabama Extension starts at 95°F and drops 5°F a week too. Chick level means 2 inches above the bedding, not your eye level. This page is part of the chick brooder guide.

The chick brooder temperature chart, week by week

Use the middle column as your target. The Purdue column shows Purdue’s 5°F band for each week, so you can see the target sits at its top.

In Celsius the targets round to 35, 32, 29, 27, 24 and 21°C. The targets come from UMaine and Alabama. Purdue’s Table I, given in days of age, supplies the Purdue column. Mississippi State Extension supplies the notes on feathers and the 70°F room: feathers replace the downy coat as chicks grow, and the brooder temperature has to fall with them.

Penn State Extension uses a looser table: 92 to 95°F in week 1, 85 to 90°F in weeks 2 and 3, 80 to 85°F in weeks 3 to 5 and 70 to 80°F in weeks 5 to 8. It lands in the same place by week 6 to 8, with slower steps.

Swipe sideways to see the whole figure, or open it full size.

Why some hatchery charts say 100 to 105°F and extension says 95°F

Valley Hatchery’s chart starts week 0 at 100 to 105°F, then runs 95 to 100°F, 90 to 95°F and 85 to 90°F for the next three weeks (Valley Hatchery). That sits 5 to 10°F above the extension rows. The extension sources are close to each other, and they leave room for a warmer first day:

• Purdue puts week 1 at 90 to 95°F, and raises the schedule about 5°F during stress or vaccination.
• Alabama warms the brooder to 95 to 100°F before the birds arrive when chicks are lethargic.
• UMaine and Alabama both pick 95°F as the week 1 number.

Feed-store charts vary in a second way: season and where you measure. Some start summer chicks 5°F lower than winter chicks, and some read the temperature well above the litter. Under a heat lamp, air 10 inches up is cooler than air 2 inches up, so a reading taken that high understates what the chicks feel where they stand. Measure at 2 inches, as every extension source here does. A lower summer start can make sense in a warm room, but let huddling or spreading out decide it, not the calendar.

My rule for day 1: aim for 95°F. If the chicks arrive tired from shipping, or they huddle at 95°F in a draft-free box, go to 100°F, which is inside what Alabama and Purdue describe, and drop back as they spread out. Do not run the whole week at 100°F or above. Overheated chicks eat and drink less (Alabama).

Day 1: what to set and what to watch

Day-old chicks cannot regulate their own temperature, so the first day is about having the heat ready (Alabama Extension). Do this in order:

1. Start the heat 24 hours early and let the brooder settle at 95°F at chick level. It takes about a day to reach temperature (Alabama).
2. Check the reading 2 inches above the bedding, under the heat source, with a thermometer you trust.
3. Set water and feed first. Put the waterer and feeder at the edge of the warm zone, and keep the water under 77°F.
4. Place the chicks and dip each beak in water, then feed.
5. Watch for the first hour, then check every few hours. Spread out and eating means right. Piled up and chirping means add heat. Panting or away from the heat means cut it.

Keepers on r/BackYardChickens ask what to set for day 1. The answer is 95°F, then let the chicks’ behavior move it 5°F either way.

Give chicks a warm zone and a cool zone

A brooder works best when chicks can walk out of the heat. This is localized brooding: a local heat source plus a cooler, unheated area, so chicks pick their own temperature by moving between them (Purdue Extension). The box needs to be big enough for that. Give 0.5 sq ft per chick to week 4 (UMaine); the floor-space table works it out by chick count.

If every inch of the box is 95°F, chicks cannot get away from the heat, and the first sign of too hot is panting. Put the heat at one end and the feeder and waterer at the edge of its reach.

Picture the gradient in a big brooder in a warm room: the air right under the lamp runs hottest, the far end sits at room temperature, and the chicks ring the hot spot, edging in to warm up and out to cool off. With that much range, the exact reading under the lamp matters less, because the chicks pick their own spot inside it. A small tote has no far end, so a small box needs a smaller heat source or a plate.

Reading chick behavior

The thermometer reads the air, and the chicks tell you whether it works. Check them several times a day, especially in the evening.

A happy brooder looks like this: chicks scattered evenly, some at the waterer, some at the feeder and some under the heat.

Chicks outside their comfort zone eat less, drink less and burn more energy keeping warm (Alabama). A temperature problem looks like a feed problem first.

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Heat plates: use behavior, not a thermometer

A heat plate warms the chicks under it and not the air, so the 95°F air-temperature chart does not apply directly. A plate “doesn’t heat the air,” and chick behavior is the best guide to comfort (Brinsea). Start the legs near 3 inches for standard-sized chicks, lower the plate if they huddle and raise it if they pant. Keep the room above 50°F (Brinsea).

The chart still helps with timing. It tells you the plate should climb a notch each week as chicks grow, and when the whole thing can come off. Some plates add a thermostat: the Chickcozy has a 70 to 95°F preset range for chicks, with no word on where that temperature is read (Chickcozy). The heat plate roundup compares four of them.

Where to put the thermometer and how to keep it steady

• Put the probe 2 inches above the bedding under the heat source. Eye-level readings are easier to take but are not the number that counts (Alabama).
• Purdue records the temperature about 2 inches from the floor, directly under the heat source.
• Purdue tells you to check the accuracy of brooder thermometers and thermostats. A second cheap one costs less than a lost batch.
• Hold it steady, set for the chicks’ comfort and not yours (Alabama).
• Keep them on the edge of the heat zone, not under it, so chicks do not overheat or chill to eat.
• Avoid large temperature swings for the first 6 weeks (Penn State).

When chicks can go without heat

On the UMaine schedule the heat reaches 70°F in week 6, and you can switch the brooder off on warm days. The sources vary on the endpoint. Cornell Cooperative Extension in Warren County keeps the bulb on day and night for the first three weeks (Cornell). Penn State watches for chilling for six weeks and ends its table at room temperature in week 8. Alabama keeps stepping down until the chicks are comfortable at the temperature of the coop where they will live.

Across the sources that is three to six weeks of heat in mild weather, and longer when the coop is cold. Once the heat is off and the chicks are fully feathered, the next step is the coop: when chicks can go outside covers the age, the 50°F night rule and the move itself. If the move lands in winter, the heating a chicken coop guide covers the coop side.

Written by Kyle

Kyle has kept backyard chickens on his own small farm for five years. He reads the extension research, the spec sheets and the owner complaints, then tells you what he would buy and what he would skip.

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