4th Annual BYC NYD Hatch-a-long

[SilkieSensation]

Had a bulb blow in 1 of my 2 brooders over night. Since it's in the barn no one found it til my landlord went out to feed his birds at 5am. No telling how long it was out. It may have been out as long as 10 hours since I did my feeding at 7pm. So far, 3 dead babies & 1 not looking too good. The other 5 seem to be recovering but only time will tell. If it had been the bigger babies instead of the newly hatched ones they may have stood a better chance since they are partially feathered in & there are more of them in that brooder to snuggle together.

 

[mstricer]

that's sad. Better be more careful, good thing it wasn't a short. Probably too high a wattage for the base. I almost caught our house on fire with an extension cord not rated for what I was using it for. Everyone should check that. On the label is where you will find that.

 

[mstricer]

EVERYONE

 

[Herducks]

I am getting ready to go out of town for Thanksgiving, so I moved all my chicks from garage into basement. My youngest in there is two weeks, so I am hoping if the light did go out they would be fine until my neighbor got there to feed. There are 14 chicks from 2-8 weeks old. It says in the mid sixties down there.

 

[mrheinz77]

 

[tadpole98]

I want bacon now

 

[SilkieSensation]

that's sad. Better be more careful, good thing it wasn't a short. Probably too high a wattage for the base. I almost caught our house on fire with an extension cord not rated for what I was using it for. Everyone should check that. On the label is where you will find that.

No, it wasn't too high. I use standard household bulbs. This 1 was 75 watts. It just happens that bulbs burn out on occasion. When I had all my brooders in the house it was easy to catch an outage quickly but now that they are in the barn someone has to actually go out there to find out there is a problem & temps in the barn get rather cold over night. Basically I had 3 babies die of hypothermia before we found out the heat was out.

 

[SilkieSensation]

I am getting ready to go out of town for Thanksgiving, so I moved all my chicks from garage into basement. My youngest in there is two weeks, so I am hoping if the light did go out they would be fine until my neighbor got there to feed. There are 14 chicks from 2-8 weeks old. It says in the mid sixties down there.

60's is much better than 40's which is about where mine are in the barn. Your 8 week olds should have no problems at all with 60 degree temps & really don't even need a light any more. If your 2 week olds are feathered in fairly well they would be fine as well. I have tossed chicks out to the coop with daytime temps in the 50's & nighttime dropping to the 30's at 2 weeks old & not lost a single baby to the cold. With the older chicks in there to keep the younger ones warm I doubt there would be any problem at all if you lost the heat lamp for several hours.

 

[mstricer]

Quote:

and the bacon. Yum- yum That is breakfast now.

 

[Herducks]

60's is much better than 40's which is about where mine are in the barn. Your 8 week olds should have no problems at all with 60 degree temps & really don't even need a light any more. If your 2 week olds are feathered in fairly well they would be fine as well. I have tossed chicks out to the coop with daytime temps in the 50's & nighttime dropping to the 30's at 2 weeks old & not lost a single baby to the cold. With the older chicks in there to keep the younger ones warm I doubt there would be any problem at all if you lost the heat lamp for several hours.

If I was not going out of town, I would have thrown the 8 week olds out yesterday, but I am being extra careful since my swedish flower hen pullet is one of them and she is one of my favorites.