Abstract
1. Measurements of the micro‐climate within a poultry house and physical models of heat loss produced estimates of the sensible heat losses from broilers. The partition between radiative and convective heat losses changed with age and bird activity. 2. The birds spent approximately 67% of their time in a cluster, in which their sensible heat losses were between 30 and 60% of those of an individual bird. 3. Body plus plumage resistance was constant at 0–09 m2K/W up to 30 d and increased linearly to 0–40 m2K/W at 54 d.