Attaching brooder lighting

[Kim Hallum]

I have my first 8 chicks arriving in 5 days. I have a large plastic bin that I will be using for the brooder. My question is, how do I attach the heat lamp? I see pictures of them suspended above the brooder, but I don't see what they are attached to. I will be leaving them in the house until they are old enough to put in the run. Also, I have house cats so I will keep the top of the brooder covered with a screen. Any ideas will be appreciated!

 

[tinaisodd]

i had my brooder lamp hanging from a clothes rack, before that i had it attached to an extra dining chair. i didn't trust the strength of the clamp so i used garbage bag twisty ties to secure the clamp ends. be careful with those plastic tubs, i started out with a decent sized high sided rubbermaid and found it got wayyyy to hot so i swapped out for a lower sided one.

and my cats are more afraid of the chickens then they chickens are of them!!!

 

[Egghead_Jr]

We use a metal mesh child gate on top of the plastic tote. The light with metal hood just sits on that; though I use a regular incandecent bulb of 100w not cooking them with a 250w heat lamp that close.

 

[Edwards24]

I just took some 2x4's and built something to attach the brooder lamp to. I bought some chain and hung the brooder over what i had them in. It was also nice because as time went on I could raise the lamp away dropping the temp in the brooder and the eventually taken it away all together.

 

[BuffOrpington88]

I got a step ladder and attached the lamp to that with a chain with D-ring snaps.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

My brooder is a 46 gallon Rubbermaid storage container. I cut a circular hole in the top and zip tied hardware clothe over the hole (so the lamp can just sit on the wire). There is a hole cut through the middle of the wire so the lamp can sit lower when the chicks are smaller. When I have the lamp hanging inside the wire, it's clamped to a bird perch that I picked up from Walmart on clearence. Then I used bread ties to secure the cord to a wire shelf my brooder is next to in case the clamp should fail, it works great! There is a HUGE brooder thread somewhere in this section, with tons of pics of fabulous brooders. Good luck!

 

[Kim Hallum]

Thanks for all the feedback!