best way to keeping chicks warm in homemade brooder

[Zoe Willcocks]

Hi everyone, I am new to breeding chickens and at the moment in a little pickle...
I am in the tropics so normally they would just about need a fan on them all year round let alone warming...
Because of Tropical Cyclone it has been very cold... at the moment I have 3 bantam/silkies in a wooden homemade brooder that is about 80cm by 40cm with a light above it. I had 7 hatch today and will need to take them out of the hatcher soon.
Once I do, they will be in a different brooder with another Lamp going over them.
What is the most effecient way to keep them warm.?
I dont really want 3-4 lights going over different brooders as I am worried about them blowing and setting something on fire with all the hay at the bottom of the brooder...

If lights are the best way to go about it what would be suggested for the best stand and bulb.
Please help me out I dont want them to freeze on me because i didn't give them enough heat.... !!!

 

[PD-Riverman]

Hanging lights are the simplest, not the best. A thermostat controlled brooder set-up is the best, Some use heating pads(that stay on all the time--new ones cut off in 2 hrs) to make a hover type deal where the chicks go under it to get warm. Where Most get carried away with hanging lights is using high wattage heat bulbs to warm a few chicks----its a over kill as well as dangerous and costly on your electric. If I am only brooding 7 chicks I use a 25 watt incandescent bulb in the hanging light---lowering the light a few inches off the floor to get the temp around 95 to 100F in the hottest spot. Some times If I got a dozen or so chicks I might raise the light a little with a 40 watt bulb, maybe even a 60 watt. Having raised 1000's and 1000's of chicks I rarely go over a 60 watt bulb(extreme cold maybe 75 or 100 watt). NO I do not feel the white light effects them at all---my opinion.
Most people do not know you can go to Lowes(or similar) and get a $9 hot water thermostat and hook it to these hanging lights---place it down a chick level under the light with it turned down low and it will turn the light on and off as heat if needed. That could save a lot of electric over time.