Chicken pro seems nervous about me using the ecoglow brooder

[off-grid hen]

Little background info here... I live off the grid and needed a low-power brooder idea. Even a 100 w lightbulb would be the most inefficient thing in my house. Having to burn gasoline or propane to run a generator to run a lightbulb seems almost blasphemous to us (I kid just a little!

) It's not something we felt comfortable leaving on 24-7 due to fire hazards also. The place is old and would go up like a box of matches. My driveway is also during mud season when we get the chicks, and the firetrucks couldn't get to us, can you tell I have a fear of fire?

I work with a woman who runs a small farm. She raises chickens, pigs, beef cattle (highlands- they're gorgeous!) sheep, turkeys, etc. She is a localvore extraordinaire and provides local restaurants with luscious local food, and many a family with a free range turkey for Thanksgiving. Wonderful lady who I have a ton of respect for. She is also what I call a "chicken pusher". She has managed to get at least half the people in our office to have a backyard flock. I am the most recent target that she has "turned to the dark side" as we call it at work.

And she doesn't stop at chickens. Chickens are just the toe in the door for her. Next she tries to push goats on you, but I'm NOT going there!

Here's my problem. I have showed her my ecoglow brooder which arrived on monday (woohoo!) and she keeps making references to adding another heat source, even suggesting that I leave the chicks with my son's kindergarten class because that'll solve my "power problem". I think she is very concerned (even though she hasn't said it outright) that my chickies are going to die due to lack of heat from this brooder she's never had experience with. I will be keeping them in my house. The ambient heat is on a timer currently set to be 68-70 F when we are home, and 64 when we are not. The instructions on the ecoglow say that the temp should be minimum of 50 F.

I am going to have about 15 chicks (provided they all survive the mail trip). They will arrive April 18th or there abouts. Based on what I've read, I will expect them to huddle under for 2 days or so, coming out to eat and drink a bit- I will make sure the food and water is reasonably close to the heat source. Since huddling under is natural behavior for this brooder, how would I tell if they aren't warm enough? Obviously if I need a lightbulb, I'll bite the bullet and run the dang generator- nobody panic! and will turn off the lightb bulb (but not the brooder heater!) at night. But I SERIOUSLY think I won't need it.

Based on the threads I have seen here about this brooder, I think they'll be ok. But I am asking... For those of you who have an ecoglow, what say you!?

 

[featherz]

I used an ecoglow about two months ago with 13 chicks in a 50 degree house. All did fine and are thriving today. No additional heat. You will be fine!

 

[FMAFarms]

You should be fine! Unless you want to borrow a hen from the localvore chicken lady so you can heat the chicks the all-natural way!

 

[off-grid hen]

Thanks, featherz.

FMAFarms- I am not sure I want to open that door to her. Before I know it. she'll be delivering other livestock with the hen. She's that sneaky.

And while I have you two notherners here- what breeds of chickens do you have? Do you have insulated or heated coops? Had any problems with frostbite?

Thinking of doing the woods style open-front coop design like JackE on the coop board, but not sure with the breeds I have. I will be getting partridge rock hens, dominiques, and rose comb brown leghorns.

 

[featherz]

I don't have an insulated OR heat in my coop and even my LEGHORNS (regular old white, floppy combed) did just fine, even in -26F. I did have a bit of frostbite on the larger combs, but it was superficial and the only one who lost any points was my big roo who has a bit of a smoother comb now.

All my smaller comb chickens and my bantams had no frostbite. I do deep litter and had heated water bowls to keep the ice off. I was surprised how well they did. Now that it's 30ish in the daytime they all act like it's a heat wave.

 

[debid]

Featherz, are you talking about full-grown chickens or were you brooding chicks with the EcoGlow at -26?

I was interested in trying the EcoGlow but brooding outdoors means the temperatures COULD drop into the upper 30s at night and probably will be in the 40s. I guess the EcoGlow is more for brooding chicks in your house.

For your purposes, though, I'd think it would be fine! The person you're speaking with probably broods large groups outdoors -- barn or something -- so for her, the EcoGlow would not be a reasonable solution. It's just perfect for a plastic tote or cardboard box in the laundry room, though, where a hanging heat lamp would be a potential fire hazard and it's easier to give chicks in a small space too much heat rather than not enough.

 

[elmo]

Do a dry run before your chicks arrive and test the set up with a thermometer. That's a good idea with any kind of a brooder. Many digital thermometers have a high/low setting so you can monitor how hot it got and how cold it got over a period of hours. That would be a good way to tell how the unit is working through the night, without having to get up out of bed to check it.

 

[featherz]

Quote:
No, all chicks were inside my 50F house. Not outside, the ecoglow would not even touch that temperature!!!

 

[Fred's Hens]

Quote:
The key is to choose hardy breeds. We routinely had -25 to -30 here. -11 this morning!!! No insulation, no heat. Unnecessary.

No one had, NO ONE had heat or electricity for centuries. Our American breeds, for the most part, were developed in New England, Up State New York and other cold, cold places.

 

[off-grid hen]

Quote:
The instructions on the brooder say that it would not meausre correctly with a thermometer, because it is radiant heat, like a mother to a chick, so the air directly under mama isn't going to be the temperature of a chicken. (I think that's what they mean). So I'm just going to keep the extra lightbulb handy, but I really doubt that I'll ever even need to turn it on.