I am tired of replacing heat lamp bulbs to keep my peeps in the brooder warm. I suspended a lamp with reflector, purchased in hardware dept at Wally World, put a 25watt bulb in it. I purchased a round baking rack, the kind you cool cakes on that was the same size as the outside diameter of the reflector. I poked 4 holes in the reflector with the point of a nail right at the outer edge. I then used paper/wire ties to tie the cake rack on the reflector so the peeps can't peck at the bulb. with the bottom edge of the reflector 5" above the floor my peeps are at a comfortable temp of 100 deg. with the room temp at 70 deg. Of course you can put larger wattage bulbs in the lamp if you are brooding in a cooler space. regular light bulbs cost about a buck each and provide about 1000 hrs of illumination, thats about 41 days per bulb. thats about 6 weeks of brooding for a buck bulb cost, and the wattage usage is much less too as you are only providing heat where its needed. I do not raise the lamp either, just leave it there like the mother hen would be for the chicks to return to when they need heat. In brooding space where you are brooding large numbers of chicks i suggest putting several lamps in for good warmth coverage. Heat lamp bulbs are expensive and draw hundreds of watts. You could put 4 of these setups in place for every 100 watts if you use 25 watt bulbs. This is working great for me keeping my new Silver Laced Bramah babies nice and warm. A word of caution, I used clear bulbs at first and apparently the glass of the bulb magnifies the light coming from the bulb directly below it and i am using industrial type short pile nylon carpet on the floor of my brooder and I noticed that it disintegrated the carpet in about a one inch spot. Would prob be a good idea not to use clear bulbs and always monitor closely if your using combustable bedding in brooder. Using this method I have brooded very successfully.
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