PLEASE NOTE:
Using a thermometer to test the temperature under the chick brooder heater is not accurate. As the heating method is different from traditional brood lamps, the radiant heat uses electromagnetic waves. These waves effectively transfer heat from one object to another, and they don’t warm the air as they pass through it. After you set the temperature, the LCD screen will display the current temperature after 2 seconds. The TEMP will keep moving until reach the set temperature, which usually takes 10-30 minutes.
Contact brooding is a natural way of raising chicks. Chicks can safely touch the underside of a heating plate, just like how they would nestle up against a mother hen's warm belly.
The chick brooders are for indoor use only and the room temperature should not drop below 50°F (10°C). It is better to have the brooder on a lower height setting, if in doubt. The chicks will move away from the PoultryKit heating plate if they are too warm. Another useful trick is to put the whole box on a slab of 1” Styrofoam to reduce heat loss from the bottom. In an extreme case, one end of the heating plate may be set lower than the other. This gives very small birds to option to touch the warm surface of the chick brooder heat plate or adjust their position for maximum comfort.