Ceramic Heat Bulb Questions

[RoosterML]

I have used a ceramic heat emitter for the last 3 yrs, and love it. I use a 75 watt bulb in a clamp light fixture, for small batches of chicks. It keeps them warm under, and they still go out into the cooler area. It has to be fairly low, as you can see in this photo. Like chicks with a mama hen, they don't need heat all the time after the first 2 or 3 days. They spend quite a bit of time not under it, in ambient room temp.
I like that it puts out no light so chicks sleep all night. I keep a thermometer under to monitor.


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After testing that is what I noticed is that the 50w needed to be really close to the bedding.
I am thinking of buying a 100w and giving that a go.
How many chicks have you done under one 75w bulb?

 

[SueT]

After testing that is what I noticed is that the 50w needed to be really close to the bedding.
I am thinking of buying a 100w and giving that a go.
How many chicks have you done under one 75w build?

6 max for me.
I'll ask my daughter who is using one for 11 chicks right now. Might be a few hours to get thru, they are in a later time zone. I don't know what size bulb she uses. ( @Jenna_Grace )
I triple up the supports for that clamp light, so that it can't be jostled out of place. Definitely could be a fire hazard, as all heat sources could be. (except a broody hen of course.)

 

[imnukensc]

Heat plates/brooder plates are great! Yes, the chicks will get on top of it and poop on them. You can buy the plastic pyramid to place over the top that doesn't allow them to get up there or you can do what I do: cover the top with Press N Seal and change it every few days.

 

[RoosterML]

6 max for me.
I'll ask my daughter who is using one for 11 chicks right now. Might be a few hours to get thru, they are in a later time zone. I don't know what size bulb she uses. ( @Jenna_Grace )
I triple up the supports for that clamp light, so that it can't be jostled out of place. Definitely could be a fire hazard, as all heat sources could be. (except a broody hen of course.)

I’m testing the 200w ceramic one I have now and will post results in alittle while.

 

[Hortgirl]

Heat plates/brooder plates are great! Yes, the chicks will get on top of it and poop on them. You can buy the plastic pyramid to place over the top that doesn't allow them to get up there or you can do what I do: cover the top with Press N Seal and change it every few days.

This is what I do with the mama heating pad, works great!

 

[RoosterML]

200w ceramic heat emitter bulb results are in.
Surface/room temp roughly 65*
Light fixture roughly 24” above surface
Temp readings range in the 90*-103*f


In my opinion this setup would easily handle 20-30 chicks. With this setup you could likely use in even colder room temperatures.
Would be great to warm shipped chicks up quickly once they arrive for the next day or two. After that I would raise fixture up to 30” and monitor the chicks activity.

 

[SueT]

200w ceramic heat emitter bulb results are in.
Surface/room temp roughly 65*
Light fixture roughly 24” above surface
Temp readings range in the 90*-103*f

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In my opinion this setup would easily handle 20-30 chicks. With this setup you could likely use in even colder room temperatures.
Would be great to warm shipped chicks up quickly once they arrive for the next day or two. After that I would raise fixture up to 30” and monitor the chicks activity.

sounds great!

 

[RoosterML]

Preimer 1 light fixture does NOT work with Ceramic heat bulbs. It does not put out the heat. Using the same 200w bulb as in the previous test using the metal light fixture.
I had the bulb about 20” from the surface and the surface was about 80*f.
The heat was just coming out the top of the fixture and not the bottom.
I take it the Preimer1 fixture can only be used with red heat bulbs!!

 

[CSAchook]

Alright, got some heat readings and pics for you when I took everyone out to clean the brooder. My ambient room temp was 73 degrees. My light was 21 inches above the brooder floor. My temp gradient was 110 at the very hottest spot down to room temp (temps were dropping about 1-2 degrees per inch away from the hottest point). This is quite a bit hotter than I normally keep the brooder, but I have mainly bantams and they just arrived by mail a couple days ago. Now that they are all settled, I will start raising up the light to get them accustomed to lower temps.

The brooder is about 4ft x 4ft. Currently housing 10 bantam and 4 LFchicks but I have used this setup for up to 20 LF chicks until I was ready to move them outside. The heat emitter is double secured in case one chain or clip fails. And I just shorten the chainto raise the lamp.

Pics!

 

[Chickinie]

The way I have mine set up the chicks actually sit sleep on top of it. So every couple days I need to change the top covering. Usually I use old T-shirt, towels, dish cloths.
I personally wouldn’t buy a heat plate for several reasons.
1) If it stops working your forced to use something’s else and hopefully you notice in time as it is the sole heat source.

2) I can buy two heating pads and a tin cookie sheet and still be cheaper with the benefit of two heat sources.

Oh yeah, true.
It's pretty warm here though when I usually hatch, and they are always in the house, so the chicks will give a fair warning of a failed heat source.