black lights?

[crazyhen]

I hear a lot of you talking about peeking problems. In the wild the chicks are in the dark at night and bright light during the day. Would a black light at night and bright light during the day work? Would it harm the chicks? I will have them in a brooder under a skylight in my bathtub. So they will get natural light during the day and the other for heat. Mine are suppose to come any day now. I'mm waiting impatiently. Jean

 

[Crest Acres Girl]

Actually, I just had one of those lizard heat lamps for night as brooder lights.I have it on all day and night

It comes in red or blue.

 

[Bandana]

I have a heated blanket that my cat peed on. Can't get the stink out. I'm gonna take the wires out and use them to heat my brooder at night. You know what they say about lemons and lemonade.

 

[crazyhen]

Nyis,
I have a nice big plastic chest with the lid cut out on top with hardware cloth attached to it. I have the light right on the top of the wire. I am going to have to raise it some or switch to lower wattage during the day as the temp swings outside are so great. I don't like a hot home and use the wood stove with electric as mostly suplimental. The house varies too. The outside temp today at 2 pm was 80 but in the morning it will be low 40's as I said a big change to try and keep the temp close steady. Jean

 

[Crest Acres Girl]

is it possible to have the heat lamp on the waaaaay opposite side? I usually put it far away as the food as possible, if the chickies get cold they automatically huddle under the lamp, if they get hot they spread out more

 

[crazyhen]

Nyis,
I have just that set up. I have the light on one end and the food on the other. I will keep only 6 chicks and someone else is coming to pick up what is left of the 25 I ordered. I am so glad he is. whew! I didn't want that many at once. esp. this time of year. Now summer would be much easier. It would only require a small amt of heat. I want to spoil my first fuzzy little bundles. I want them to trust me royally.
Next summer if all goes well I want some of speckledhens blue orps. also I want a few Delawares. I am hoping that will satisfy this craving for birds but my eye has also been drawn toward the buff Faveoles. That means a bigger house and run. Yikes, and I have just begun with chicks, Byc makes us all addicts and enablers I think and we don't even feel guilt. Jean

 

[Akane]

I just don't like the idea of using a black light over an animal. Maybe I just don't have enough experience with reptiles or maybe the bulbs sold aren't true black lights. My experience with it around mammals and fish though is that it is extremely harmful after 5 or so hours. Black lights come with warnings for human exposure and "sunburn".

Now you can get plain incandescents painted red at walmart and feedstores. That type of dark heat lamp I think is a much better idea.

 

[Moriah]

I would not use a black light at all for something like this. Black lights are usually UV lights and after so many hours of exposure it can be harmful, there are often times warnings on the packaging for them as well.

 

[mjdtexan]

If you use a black light you may find that your chickens start saying things like, "dude, thats way cool". Or, "Man, thats really wild". And dont be suprised ifin they need to borrow $20. I dunno.

 

[crazyhen]

No black lights.. So today I went shopping for a 6o watt red light and a 60 watt blue light. I tried litterally every store that sold lights to my knowledge. Only 25 watt of either so... I bought two small reflectors and put two on top of the box. I get 50 watts and if I need more I have the big light that hangs up much higher of the 125 brooder light. It will be hectic but hopefully, (I'm watching the temps today and tonight) they will work. THanks so much for the info and laugh. Jean