Should I Use A Heat Bulb Or A Heat Plate?Updated 4 months ago

Mail order poultry is entirely different than poultry hatched out in an incubator at home or under a hen. Mail-order poultry requires much more heat initially for the first 2 weeks than a heat plate generally can provide.  Mail-order chicks need their body temperature rapidly and immediately and artificially warmed up to 104 degrees (which is a mother hen’s temperature). Most heat plates do not do this. The chick does not have the ability to generate enough of its own heat immediately on arrival and sustain its own temperature. About the time of arrival, the chick is losing its (mother nature protection). 

Generally, after the first 2 weeks of using a heat lamp, it is recommended you switch to a heat plate that does not put out any light so the chicks can adjust to a more circadian rhythm. They no longer need light 24/7 for a fast start for eating and drinking and now the 24/7 light will stress them at this point.