| Frequently Asked Questions (Heating) |
Is it really worthwhile to take the trouble to pre-heat a house before chick placement?
Yes, it definitely is worthwhile to pre-heat, and to provide optimum temperature throughout the brooding stage. When baby chicks come to the farm they have no ability to regulate their own body temperature, so that they will readily lose heat to the air and to the surface of the floor. And if they are too cool in the early days of life they will be stunted in terms of future growth. University study after study has shown that chicks brooded at too cool temperature will suffer in feed conversion, body weight, mortality and increased incidence of ascites. This is why it is so critical to pre-heat a house to have adequate warmth in the house during the first days of the flock, and to maintain the correct temperature during the brooding period. In fact it takes almost three weeks for chicks to fully develop the ability to maintain their body temperature. If we wait until the chicks are in the house before turning on the heat, it will take a day or two for the floor and the litter to warm up, and during this time the cool litter will in a sense "suck" the heat out of the chicks. It is a very good idea to pre-heat the house for at least 24 hours prior to placing chicks. The litter should be at least 85 F (29 C) at the time chicks are placed. In extremely cold weather, or if furnaces are the only heat source used, it might take 48 hours of pre-heating to obtain adequate temperature to properly receive chicks. Most companies have temperature regimes they recommend for the type birds that are grown, and these regimes should be followed.
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What are the most important signs that birds are too warm or too cold?
When birds are too warm they migrate to cooler or higher airflow areas, hold feathers closer to the body, droop or lift their wings to get more air cooling, drink more and eat less. If they stop eating and begin panting, especially if normally pink skin areas turn dark red, they definitely are over-heated. When birds are too cold, they tend to huddle together on the floor, move away from the direction of air movement, and "fluff" feathers to increase their insulating value.
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What is the best method of heating to use during the brooding phase, house furnaces or some type of brooder heaters?
This is a topic that is frequently discussed by growers and live production personnel. While it is possible to do a good job of brooding with furnaces, pancake brooders, and/or radiant brooding equipment, there are some distinct advantages or disadvantages to each. Using furnaces only saves the cost of the brooders, but has the disadvantage of having to heat the entire house (or partial house) to the exact air temperature needed for the birds to be comfortable. If we miss getting the right temperature, or for birds slightly ahead or behind the others who would do better at a slightly different temperature, there is nowhere for birds to go to get comfortable. Using furnaces only also means that pre-heating is even more important. Many growers are successful in brooding with furnaces only, but the consensus of most live production people is that using some type of brooders, along with furnaces for "background" heat, provides a better environment for the bird than relying only on furnaces. The primary advantage of brooders is that they produce graduated warm areas throughout the house so that there will be zones under each brooder where each chick has a choice of where to position himself. These comfort zones under brooders give the bird the opportunity to move in and out with respect to the brooder to achieve a comfort level that is perfect for that individual bird.
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What is the difference between infrared and conventional brooder heating?
There is a lot of misunderstanding about how infrared heat warms a broiler chicken or a broiler house. Infrared heat is the kind of heat that comes from a glowing brooder. It is the same kind of heat that we experience when we stand in front of a fire on a cold winter day. Even though the air temperature between our bodies and the fire is cold we still receive warmth from the glow of the fire. Conventional pancake or jet brooders will produce some infrared heat, but most of their heat output is by convection, heating the air. Infrared brooders, which are usually larger physically and in heat output, provide most of their heat as infrared and therefore do not directly heat the air in the poultry house. The infrared heat is transferred from the glowing brooder to the broiler chicken (and to whatever area of the litter that is exposed) without heating the air in between. The warmed surfaces then release heat to the air and air temperature will go up. This can make infrared more efficient. One of the problems with relying on infrared heat is that since it doesn't directly heat the air itself, we do not have good methods to control it. If we use air temperature thermostats to turn infrared heaters on and off we may not be controlling the heat based on the birds' needs. As with conventional brooders, the birds have some control in that they can move in and out of the warming zone. They should be observed, however, to see if they are either packing very tightly in the warming zones (probably not getting enough warmth) or trying to scatter away from the brooders (too much heat).
Product Categories: Heating
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