Chicks hatch without the ability to hold body temperature, and feathers replace the brooder's heat, week by week. The schedule below therefore steps the warmth down as feathering spreads from wings to body, and pairs each step with the bedding that stage needs. Read temperatures at chick height, at the edge of the heated area, and give the brooder a warm end and a cooler end throughout, so chicks can move towards or away from the heat and fine-tune what the schedule gives them. A chick that can choose its spot teaches you more than any thermometer reading.
The Six Weeks, Temperature and Bedding Together
Week one: 90–95 °F (32–35 °C). Bedding is plain paper towels for the first few days — flat, grippy footing for unsteady legs, and a pale surface where droppings and spilled feed show clearly — then dry wood shavings once the chicks are eating and walking confidently. Week two: 85–90 °F (29–32 °C), on wood shavings kept loose and dry, spot-cleaned daily where they dampen under the waterer. Week three: 80–85 °F (27–29 °C), with shavings topped up to a deeper, dry layer as growing chicks scratch and scatter it. Week four: 75–80 °F (24–27 °C), with fuller bedding changes as manure output climbs and wing feathers fill in. Week five: 70–75 °F (21–24 °C), on clean dry shavings, with heat offered mainly at night if days are mild. Week six: 65–70 °F (18–21 °C), after which most well-feathered chicks manage ambient temperatures, and bedding continues as dry shavings until they move out.
Behaviour Overrides the Thermometer
Check the chicks themselves at every visit, since their arrangement in the brooder is the truest thermometer you own. Chicks huddled tightly under the heat, cheeping loudly and piling on one another, are cold, whatever the dial claims — raise the warmth or lower the heat source and check again soon. Chicks panting, holding their wings out and spreading to the far edges away from the heat are hot, and the temperature steps down early for them. Chicks spread evenly through the brooder, some sleeping, some feeding, some wandering, are telling you the temperature is right. Judge at chick level: one sleepy chick at the edge matters less than the pattern of the group, and behaviour at repeated visits outweighs one reading taken while the room was disturbed.
Keeping Bedding Dry, Deep and Safe
Bedding fails chicks by getting wet, flat or slippery, so manage it as actively as the heat. Keep shavings dry around the waterer, where splashing concentrates: raise the waterer gradually to the height of the chicks' backs and lift damp bedding out the day it mats rather than waiting for the change. Add fresh shavings little and often to keep the layer loose and absorbent, and change the whole bed before it cakes, compacts or smells, since damp bedding chills chicks from below and fouls the brooder air. Never use slick newspaper as the walking surface, since smooth paper under young legs invites splayed legs, and keep fine, dusty material out of the brooder for breathing's sake. Dry bedding and dry chicks belong together: a chick that falls into water and chills needs warming and drying promptly, whatever week it is in.
Stepping Down Without Shocks
Make each weekly reduction in one small step, about 5 °F (about 3 °C), and watch behaviour for a day before assuming it landed well, rather than cutting heat hard on a birthday the chicks cannot feel. Feathering is the timetable: a chick feathered across the body holds warmth better than a slower sibling of the same age, so mixed groups keep access to the warm end longer, and the least feathered chick sets the group's pace. Morning and evening checks suit this rhythm — one to set the day's warmth, one to catch a cold night coming. Written as a shared rota, those checks and bedding changes are exactly the duties KinsLe assigns through Care Teams, with each reduction and finished change marked against the week the chicks are in.