Brooder Temperature - Science Fair

The temperature in the brooder was lowered each week.

Newborn chicks need the temperature to be around 95 degrees Fahrenheit. As they grow, the temperature can be lowered by 5 degrees each week until the brooder temperature matches the outside air temperature. Once they are around eight weeks they can regulate their body temperatures, their immune systems are stronger and they can move outdoors.


Our heat lamp was mounted with a wire attached to a beam over the tub. To change the temperature in the tub, the heat lamp was raised or lowered. Each time this was done I thought it would make a perfect science fair experiment. "How does the height of a heat lamp correspond to temperature?"

 It was tricky to adjust the lamp properly. Sometimes when it was lowered the temperature would change by 10 degrees. At one point, there was a shoe box under the lamp containing a weak chick which changed the way the heat was distributed. Another time the heat lamp bulb died and had to be replaced. The new bulb was a different wattage than the first bulb and the calibration process had to begin again. At night time the outside air dropped enough to change the temperature inside the tub. Eventually my son learned to change the length of the wire in 1 inch increments to arrive at the desired temperature.

So reading and adjusting temperature was another application which provided a hands-on learning opportunity experienced all because my son got chickens.