Brooder Separate Heat & Light Combo - Inquiry

[urbanutah]

Thanks. I guess I just learned to rely on writing rather than speaking because I had serious stuttering issues growing up. My stepdad (who much later adopted my sister and me) saw my frustration and told me that if something was important enough for me to try to say, it was important to him to know what that was. He suggested I write down thoughts that tended to exacerbate the stuttering because it seemed the more excited or upset I was the worse the stutter was. He promised that he’d read every word....and he did. And because the tension in my thoughts eased once I’d written them, we were then able to talk about it with far less stuttering over it. Now I hardly stutter at all, simply because writing taught me to slow my thoughts down. Speaking and writing are pretty similar. One requires you to slow down a bit so your mouth can keep up, the other so your fingers can keep up! Bless you, Dad!

I’m so glad you had that “innate sense” that what we are told to do really doesn’t fit the reality of raising these little gems. I hope yours continue to thrive!

Well, you are very eloquent with a pen/keyboard. Your dad fostered and encouraged an invaluable tool, a dying art really.

 

[urbanutah]

Okay, so you are my new chicken hero! Innately we know how to do it, we watch our flock and anyone who has animals of any kind knows their circadian rhythm is dawn to dusk, or the other way around for the nocturnals. I ended up adjusting the heat to 87 degrees as this is where they seemed most comfortable, they can mosey over directly under the infrared lamp if they want to be warmer. Our light timer is about 40 minutes after dawn and about 40 minutes before dusk so they have some natural light through the big windows at the start and end of their day. I have a rather small backyard flock, now 6 hens with our 3 new baby girls, we have only 3 adults. We originally adopted hens from a client of mine and they were older and lost a few to old age over the past two years, it was time to get babies. I wish I had a small farm so I had more room for a bigger coop and run, but I don't so integration is a little more challenging for me, but I've got a system that works. I will likely wait a bit longer to integrate, but I'm glad to know I've got the lighting and heat part of this process the way it should be. Thank you for your incredible insights; you are a beautiful writer as well.

Our hens free-range every day and have a spectacular coop to keep them safe and warm through the seasons.