Gas brooders

[hellfire]

Does anyone use or has used one? I have a sa2 Alke has brooder. I last used it about two years ago. It worked great BUT boy did it rinse gas. Does anyone know how much gas it will use per day? Or how long a 20kg bottle will last on average? Obviously this also depends on how high I turn it up I understand. Just a rough idea as ended up rinsing a huge bottle in a few days with the regulator on 3.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I've never used one but have considered it when I saw them in the Farmtek catalog. I have electric in most of my buildings so I go with electric methods. I have used propane heaters in buildings when the temps dropped below zero F (-18C) to keep roosters' combs from freezing.
They certainly do use a lot of gas and I'm looking for other methods.
For chicks, I have virtually abandoned my big Ohio Brooders and now only use Premier 1 heat plates. They are the most energy efficient means of brooding. If I use an Ohio brooder for large numbers of chicks, I use ceramic heat emitters.

http://www.plamondon.com/wp/build-200-chick-brooder-two-hours-20/

https://www.ebay.com/c/1442626497

https://www.premier1supplies.com/p/heating-plates-and-covers

I think the gas brooders you refer to are for huge poultry houses with thousands of birds.

 

[UrbanRookie]

1kg of gas is about 14kWh of gas, and so a 20kg bottle is 280kWh. The burner should have a rating on the side of how many KWh it uses (per hour) - which will be at maximum, and you should be able to work it out from there

 

[hellfire]

I’ll have a look see what the rating on the brooder is thanks. I’ve been using my electric hen for years but I’ve turned my old piggery into breeding pens and used the gas brooder for geese a few years ago. I have turkeys just about to hatch under a broody turkey hen but also have some in the incubator now after my other hen in her ultimate wisdom left the nest! I don’t have electric in that building or anywhere near it and would like to rear them in there ideally with the gas brooder but if it’s going to cost a stupid amount in gas it’s not worth it. If I was rearing 200 or so I expect it would be fine.

 

[hellfire]

I’ve found out it ‘should’ run for about 700hours on a top heat setting and more the lower the setting is. That’s 57kg of gas in 29 days. So why mine lasted a week on mid heat setting is beyond me. Maybe I was loosing gas but couldn’t smell a leak. Or my regulators no good. I’ll try it again maybe but for rearing only 10 chicks still seems much more of a costly option that electric. £65 a month basically! Not so bad if your hatching 200.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I’ve found out it ‘should’ run for about 700hours on a top heat setting and more the lower the setting is. That’s 57kg of gas in 29 days. So why mine lasted a week on mid heat setting is beyond me. Maybe I was loosing gas but couldn’t smell a leak. Or my regulators no good. I’ll try it again maybe but for rearing only 10 chicks still seems much more of a costly option that electric. £65 a month basically! Not so bad if your hatching 200.

Exactly right. Another possibility is that you didn't get a full tank of gas to begin with. That has happened to me.

 

[hellfire]

Exactly right. Another possibility is that you didn't get a full tank of gas to begin with. That has happened to me.

Never thought of not having a full bottle. The weight certainly felt full. I’m going to try it at least for a little while when they are a little older so if it did run out suddenly they’d not freeze to death. Just as a experiment so I know for future. I usually hatch about 30 poults all in all but may increase that next year as they are getting more popular than my broad breasted whites which we buy in as off heat. I do enjoy hatching the turkeys naturally but you can only fit so many eggs under a hen and at times not all go broody or they go broody too late so the poults don’t get up to weight for Xmas. I never hatch later than the 1st week of June. The ones I sell as pets and breeders it doesn’t matter so much. Would be nice to do a large hatch earlier than when they usually go broody. My electric heater is only for 25 birds. I have a heat lamp but the red lights not great with turkeys apparently. Never tried it.