Quail and Ecoglow

I just thought others would benefit from my latest experience through the first week upgrading to the Ecoglow 50 for ~100 bobwhite quail. I had searched and was unable to find much information about using the EG50 with quail. My particular questions were "how low to set the panel?" and "how many chicks is too many?". In the past, I had been using a combination of a heat lamp to start the chicks for a week or so in conjunction with an Ecoglow 20 (the lowest setting on the EG20 wasn't low enough for the bobs), but increased incubator capacity and hatching necessitated the increase of brooder space/heat.

Pros:

• Able to go as low as necessary to warm the birds (Ended up deciding to start the back side at 1-1/4" and the front at 1-1/2")
• Able to offset sides to allow the birds to self regulate how much heat (vs the EG20)
• ~1/4 the electricity cost of a 250W Lamp
• Diminished fire hazard

Cons:

• Hard to see under the panel to gauge distribution of chicks. Lost 13 Chicks, 5 of which were mysterious under the panel deaths.
• Chicks need to learn to go back under the panel, maybe I gave them "too much" space, but the other problem I had was chicks getting too far away and trying to huddle rather than retreat to the EG50.

Have not had any problems with fighting to date, so starting ~100 chicks seems to be within reason. I was happy enough with it to order another.

What is the temperature? I have a batch of 28 chick coturnix quails hatched on 6/15 and I use 60w incandescent light bulb. The temperature is 80deg and they are doing just fine. I am guessing the type of quail make a difference. Also, use small brooder box help too.

I guess that is another Con, it is hard to measure the temperature, due to the use of radiant heat vs convection heating. The radiant heating, like sunshine doesn't heat the air in between , but only is absorbed by a solid body. I am not sure how to quantify this with a measuring device. I guess the radiant heat could also be a pro, cause you are not heating all that extra air...

Normally, 80 is a little low that quickly, is your thermometer calibrated? If they aren't huddling they probably aren't cold...

I would just put a temperature gauge in few areas and see what you get. There is no need to calibrate. I have been raising chicken and quail for awhile. I tend to keep them 5-10F lower and they are doing just fine. It also depend how many chicks in the brooder. With 12 chicks or more, you could reduce the heat. When the chick making a lot of noise, that the sign it is too cold.

Traditional thermometers have trouble measuring radiant heat. The manual refers to doing such as "of little value". Similar to your methodology, it turns into a relative iterative process based upon physical cues from the chicks.

Stating calibration is irrelevant is creates a false comparison between your set up and others. If your 80 deg is really 90 deg, your assertion that someone else can keep chicks at a lower temperature is baseless.

UndergroundQuailRoad said:

Traditional thermometers have trouble measuring radiant heat. The manual refers to doing such as "of little value". Similar to your methodology, it turns into a relative iterative process based upon physical cues from the chicks.

Stating calibration is irrelevant is creates a false comparison between your set up and others. If your 80 deg is really 90 deg, your assertion that someone else can keep chicks at a lower temperature is baseless.

Click to expand...

You confuse me. Heat is just heat. Anything that put out heat you can measure by using a digital or mercury thermometer. I put my heat source at one side and the temperature around 86F. The other end is around 75F and they doing just fine. The first few days they tend to hang more under the light bulb, but slowly moving away after that.

speedy2020 said:

You confuse me. Heat is just heat. Anything that put out heat you can measure by using a digital or mercury thermometer. I put my heat source at one side and the temperature around 86F. The other end is around 75F and they doing just fine. The first few days they tend to hang more under the light bulb, but slowly moving away after that.

Click to expand...

There are three means of heat transfer: conduction, convection, and radiation. Here is a tutorial so you can educate yourself: http://www.wisc-online.com/Objects/ViewObject.aspx?ID=sce304

Heat is not just "heat". There are different types of heat and how they affect the body. Some heat is penetrating, and some just stays on the surface. I have never used this ecoglow, however I can speak for white bulbs verses infra red bulbs used for brooding for a comparison about heat.

And Underground Quailroad, I am not trying to hijack this thread, but only trying to support your theories behind heat transfer with my own experience.

White light used during brooding is not a penetrating heat. If you put your hand a few inches beneath a 250 watt white brooder bulb, you are liable to get burned and at the same time, the internal temp of your hand will stay cold. However if you do the same experiment with a 250 watt Infra Red bulb, you will not be burned and will feel the tissues of your hand, internally, warming very nicely. I never use white brooding lights, infra red only. Unless the heat is penetrating to the babies, the temps in your brooder may be inaccurate. Improper temps in the brooder is THE number one cause of babies dying during brooding. And the type of heat emitted from a white light is difficult to measure correctly, if you ask me.

Penetrating heat is hard to measure. So Underground is correct here, 80 degrees coming from one type of heat source, may be a different temp with another source of heat.

(sorry Underground, if this sort of got off the subject a bit.

UndergroundQuailRoad said:

There are three means of heat transfer: conduction, convection, and radiation. Here is a tutorial so you can educate yourself: http://www.wisc-online.com/Objects/ViewObject.aspx?ID=sce304

Click to expand...

Actually, there are 4, you left off evaporation...those are 3 modes of obtaining heat, evaporation dissipates heat. These are instruments that can measure radiative evergy, but they are probably a little on the expensive side. There are remote radiatine thermonoters, but I don't know the price.

Clint

Two Crows, Thanks for the insight and sharing your experiences. The ecoglow is interesting, particularly paired with my bigger brooder. I am getting a much larger amount of variation in growth rates of birds, much quicker feather development. It is hard to say what is from what, but the chicks seem to be industriously exploring, digging in the shavings, and zipping around.

Clint still wrapping my head around why evaporation isn't just conduction and convection, but I'll let it stew a little while I mow the lawn this weekend.