Am I the only one loosing sleep at night? Heat lamp woes

[CityChook]

The red lights kept my chooks up all night, too.

I have the ceramic heat bulb - 250 watt - and love it. Heat without the light. It stays on 24/7 here in MN. Got mine on ebay - about 50% cheaper as long as you don't need it, like, yesterday. You can get lower wattage bulbs in most pet stores that sell reptile stuff.

BTW, my girls are very comfortable at 10 degrees, which is where the interior of my coop has been sitting for the last few months. It's when it drops below zero in the coop even with heat (and sometimes 2 heat sources) that I start getting a little worried. And that has only happened a couple of times. So far, no frostbite here.

As long as your coop is draft-free, then mildly freezing temperatures are not that big of a concern. If the red light is keeping your roosters awake and naughty, then I'd turn it off. They'll be okay.

 

[key west chick]

I looked into the ceramic heat bulbs at Petsmart and just about wet my pants. They are $40 for one! I found several different brands and watts online for about half the price. My advice is shop around if you not in a hurry.

 

[Akane]

My standards were all fine and perfectly happy in -10F (-30F windchill outside) with no heat lamp. They didn't even seem to notice. Guineas are generally even hardier than chickens and probably won't care. Now my japanese bantams all ended up in the house until it went back to about 10F out. All the roos started to frostbite and they were all crammed together shivering in -10.

 

[erthymom2]

Does anyone use these ceramic bulbs as brooder bulbs?
Just wondering - if you have, what wattage did you get and how did it work in place of the standard 150 or 250 red lights.

 

[CityChook]

Not meaning to hijack the thread, but...

erthymom2, I have not used these bulbs in the brooder, but I did do a side by side comparison of my 250 ceramic against a 250 infared heat light and the results were the same. I don't know why it wouldn't work. The red light did a better job at heating surrounding air where the ceramic is radiant heat (it heats surfaces rather than air). Just to be sure, I'd still put a little thermometer into the brooder to keep an eye on temps no matter what heat source you choose. If/when I brood chickies again, I'll use the ceramic since it doesn't provide any light.