Getting the Temperature Right as They Grow — The Weekly Step-Down
From Hatch to Coop: Raising Strong, Healthy Chicks — Part 3
If there's one skill that separates an easy rearing period from a stressful one, it's managing brooder temperature over time. Chicks arrive unable to hold their own body heat and, over about six weeks, gradually become birds that can handle a cool night outdoors. Your job is to warm them at the start and then, week by week, let them do more of it themselves. Get this transition right and everything else — feeding, growth, feathering, health — falls into place.
In Part 2 we built the brooder. Now let's run the heat through the whole rearing period.
The Basic Schedule
The traditional rule is simple: start at around 35°C in the first week, then reduce by roughly 3°C each week until the brooder temperature matches the outside temperature and the chicks are fully feathered. At that point they no longer need supplementary heat.
As a week-by-week guide:
- Week 1: 35°C
- Week 2: 32°C
- Week 3: 29°C
- Week 4: 26°C
- Week 5: 23°C
- Week 6: around 20°C — by now most chicks are feathered and close to ready to come off heat entirely.
Treat these as a starting framework, not a rigid law. Breed, brooder type, room temperature and the individual chicks all shift the numbers. Which is why the most important skill isn't reading a thermometer — it's reading the chicks.
Let the Chicks Set the Thermostat
Chicks are honest about whether they're comfortable, and their behaviour is a far better guide than any single temperature reading. This is worth learning to read at a glance:
- Huddled tightly together under the heat, loud distressed cheeping — too cold. They're trying to share warmth. Lower the heat plate or turn the heat up.
- Pushed to the far edges, wings held out, panting, avoiding the heat — too hot. Raise the plate or reduce the heat.
- All pressed hard against one wall — a draught is blowing across the brooder from the opposite side. Find and block it.
- Moving freely, some under the heat and some out exploring and feeding, soft contented cheeping — the temperature is right.
Check the chicks several times a day in the first couple of weeks, especially overnight when the room cools. If they're piling up at 3am, they're cold, and cold chicks are the ones you lose.
Why a Warm Zone and a Cool Zone Beats One Even Temperature
You'll notice the schedule assumes chicks can move between warmth and cooler air. That's the whole point of a good brooder layout: a warm area under the heat source and a cooler area with food and water. Chicks self-regulate brilliantly when you give them the choice — they warm up when they need to and cool off when they're too hot, exactly as they would with a mother hen.
This is a big advantage of a heat plate over a lamp. A lamp heats the whole space to one temperature, removing the choice. A heat plate warms the chicks underneath while leaving the rest of the brooder cooler, so raising the plate week by week naturally steps the heat down and encourages the chicks to spend more time out and about as they harden off.
Measuring Temperature Properly
If you want a number to work to — and it's a useful sanity check alongside chick behaviour — measure at the right spot. Put the thermometer at chick height, in the warm zone, not up near the heat source or over in the cool corner. That's the temperature the chicks actually experience.
A simple digital thermometer is fine. If you'd like to keep an eye on the brooder without lifting the lid constantly — handy overnight or when you're out — a wireless sensor like an Inkbird IBS-TH1 Mini or the Origin Climate Monitor reads temperature (and humidity) to your phone. It's the same kind of monitoring you'd use in an incubator, put to work in the brooder.
Hardening Off — The Transition Outdoors
By around six weeks, well-feathered chicks are usually ready to come off heat and, in mild weather, to start spending time outdoors. Don't do it all in one step. Hardening off is a gradual process, just like the weekly step-down:
- Once chicks are fully feathered and the brooder heat is down near room temperature, try turning the heat off during the warmest part of the day and watch them. Comfortable and active? Good. Huddling? Back on for a bit longer.
- Extend the heat-off periods over several days until they're comfortable without it around the clock at indoor temperatures.
- Then introduce short spells outdoors on mild days, in a sheltered, secure spot, before they move out for good.
The timing depends heavily on the season and your climate. Chicks hatched into a warm spring harden off faster than those raised through a cold snap. Feathering, not just the calendar, is the real signal — a bird still showing bare patches of skin isn't ready for a cold night, whatever its age.
What Goes Wrong With Temperature
- Stepping down too fast. Pulling heat before chicks are feathered enough leaves them chilled, off their food, and vulnerable. When in doubt, go slower.
- Overheating. Just as harmful the other way — overheated chicks stop eating, dehydrate, and can die. Panting and spreading to the edges is your warning.
- Overnight chilling. Rooms drop several degrees at night. A brooder that's fine at midday can be too cold at 4am. Check late, and don't rely on daytime readings.
- Ignoring behaviour and trusting only the gauge. The thermometer is a guide; the chicks are the truth. If they're telling you they're cold, they're cold.
- Moving them out too early. A common late-stage loss — birds put in an unheated coop before they're feathered and hardened off, then hit by a cold night.
Practical Tips for the Step-Down
- Start at 35°C, drop about 3°C a week, aiming to be off heat by around six weeks.
- Read the chicks first, the thermometer second — huddling is cold, panting is hot, spread-out and busy is right.
- Always give a warm zone and a cooler zone so chicks can choose.
- Measure at chick height in the warm zone, not up at the heat source.
- Check overnight, when the room is coldest.
- Harden off gradually — feathering is the real signal, not age.
- Use feathering and mild weather together to judge when they're ready for the outdoors.
What's Next?
In Part 4, we turn to feed and water in detail — starter crumble and why it matters, when to add grit, keeping water clean without a constant battle, and the feeding mistakes that quietly hold chicks back. Warmth keeps them alive; good nutrition is what turns them into strong, well-grown birds.
If you'd like help choosing a heat plate or a brooder monitor to make the step-down easier, give us a call — we use this gear ourselves and we're happy to point you at what fits. 1300 771 457 or info@uneekpoultry.com.au.