Heat lamp on while not home?

[Egghead_Jr]

It seems overkill on the heat. 500W is a ton of heat. Yes it's 50 chicks which requires more heated area so two lamps is a good idea. I'd sooner use 150w heat bulb in that big reflector lamp. That's what I use here in upper Vermont, hey there neighbor. We brood up to 20 something chicks at a time with lamp on one side of a water trough. I brood in unheated garage too. Nice job on the double securing of lamps. Mines double secured but to a board that lays across the trough. If anything hits and moves the board it will be me so I'll be right there if it falls. Trying to think how high that puts the lamp, maybe 15 inches above bedding. Had it a few inches lower and noted chicks panting directly under it.

 

[junebuggena]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/956958/mama-heating-pad-in-the-brooder-picture-heavy-update

I have two 250 watt heat lamps. My 50 one day old broiler chicks arrive tomorrow. This is my first time, and here in northern VT, it has been dipping into the teens and 20s at night. My brooder is set up in the garage and ready to go, the garage got down to 34 last night. I turned the heat lamp on today to start testing it. It's hitting 95 to 100 about 18" off the ground. I have doubled tethered the lamps to 2 very solid eye hooks each I put into the rafters. I'm still not comfortable with the idea. It's an attached garage, and I don't have fireproof sheetrock on the walls. Is this a bad idea? I'd get the Sweeter Heater, but at $120, I want to make sure it can keep 50 chicks warm with ambient temps in the 30s and 40s.

Check out the heating pad brooder thread. Lots of great ideas for brooding chicks. You don't need to use heat lamps at all. Besides, the heat lamps need to be adjusted, up or down, every couple days. And it's difficult to keep those heat lamps from warming the whole brooder. Remember, you don't want the whole brooder heated. You want one warm spot, and the rest needs to be at least 20 degrees cooler.