Noob mistake with the Brooder Light

Hi. Wow im glad no one got hurt. This year was the first year i used a EcoGlow brooder light. It is radiant heat and will NOT catch fire. .it is half the cost to run and can be raised with growth. I got the smallest 20 chick size for my 11 chicks. They all did wonderfully with it! Thank God i still have all 11. You dont have to mess with temperatures or any of that. It was really a excellent experience. Ive wanted to get a Ecoglow for awhile but the inital cost (80$) scared me off for awhile. Now that ive used it, its very much worth the cost and i should have gotten one sooner. It can be reused of course, is easy to clean, and only has a small red light (dot) to let you know its on. This in my opinion is also better for the chicks as they experience the natural light and darkness of the day. They are trained very early on to prepare to sleep at dusk. This reduces a lot of stress as its more natural of a cycle for them. Being under a constant bright light can cause stress. The chicks simply crawl under the Ecoglow as they would a mother hen and they are warm and snuggled. They also adjust their own temperature. Much more natural. When they are warm, they leave the warmer. When cool they go under warmer just like they would a mother hen. I thought i would share my experience with this product after seeing what you went through.best of all its very safe. No fear of fire or melting. I got mine online from wayfair. Just a different method you may want to consider for future brooding. Hope this helps. If your curious just Google EcoGlow20. Best wishes.

Ah, but can you use it your sore back after chick season? Actually an Eco-Glow what I planned to do at first, but we just couldn't afford it so we went with an option we could handle. Now I love the heating pad because of the nice soft, broody-imitation surface against their backs, I can pull it down to the floor on all sides so it's totally dark under there, and it holds in the heat - not so crucial for some but critical for me when I'm raising chicks in the run when our "spring" is still in the teens and twenties......

CTKen said:

Why not try the cave idea and observe them? If they start chirping during the night, its likely that they are a little too cool, but if they settle down, you're sorted! It may just take one sleepless night on your behalf to check on them every hour or so, but it could be worth it.

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Island Juli said:

Hey! It's your neighbor down the street. (Sorry out of touch lately, sick chickens and humans but all sorted out now).

I use a heating pad cave on high the first couple of nights, then drop it down to low a couple of nights and then off. Works great!

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CTKen, and Juli, I have not shown the cave thing to JoAnn, but last night at 10 PM she got up and made a snuggle cave for Lightning- a small 8" high by 10" square bottomed arched canopy of terrycloth and soft padding. She set it up at 10:30 last night and by the looks of the poop in it it looks like he was in it last night without any heat at all.
We are planning on using this rooster for breeding when he gets old enough and will be modifying this "Cave" idea for all the new chicks. The heating pad with the light plastic cover is a must too since they tend to climb on anything new just to poop.

I don't want him or the new ones to be cold, but I really don't like the idea that the heat source we use can cause fires.

Thanks again for all the help, advice and encouragement.
Ken