Guess what caught on fire???

[TcherDawn]

My brooder lamp came with stickers on it. I did think briefly that the stickers were very close to the lamp, but then forgot to remove them. When I came down this morning there was this terrible smell of somthing burning. Those stickers were BLACK and smoldering. I am an IDIOT! Why did I not remove them when I thought about it???? We have had a couple people around here whose houses burned down because of baby chicks.

idiot, idiot, idiot me. CAUTION: remove stickers from cord before use!

 

[usschicago1]

wow your so lucky it didnt turn out bad !!!

 

[Ms.FuzzyButts]

Glad you caught it in time!!!!

 

[TcherDawn]

Yes, despite my best stab at stupidity, luck did prevail. I am new to chicks, I will learn from this.

 

[chickee]

You might want to change to the reptile ceramic bulbs bought at a pet store. Solid so I don't worry as much about breakage, the chicks can get close with less chance of being burned and they last 5 years! I start with the 100 watt for new chicks and as they get older change to the 60 watt. I feel so much safer using them!

Here is a picture of what they look like. They screw into the lamp just like a regular bulb.

 

[elmo]

I use those ceramic lamps, too, but not the clamp fixture that is usually sold to go with it. Well, I use the ceramic socket and metal shade part, but not the clamp part. Those dang clamps are completely unreliable!

I use two chains to attach the lamp where I want it to be, with the second chain a backup if the first chain fails.

 

[MontanaGal]

I almost burned down my chicken house with my heat lamp. Somehow a chicken knocked it down (I guess), and it landed on the base (plastic) of my waterer that I wasn't using, and by it landing on that plastic, it kept the straw from catching fire. When I went out to feed, I could smell wood burning, saw the lamp and all, and ran back to the house, got my husband and he brought his chain saw and we had to saw out a smoldering section of the flooring. Whew!!! THAT was too close.

Thanks for the info about the reptile lamp. Never knew about those. I will be switching to those from now on.

 

[elmo]

Quote:
You could still burn down your coop with a reptile lamp if it gets dislodged and falls onto something flammable. They get very hot, too hot to use with a plain metal socket fixture.

 

[BackToMyRoots]

Okay, I'm new and am likely to be way off base here, but what if we tried switching to microwaveable heat sources after the first week or so? I don't know what it's called any more, but last year I bought a couple of these frisbee-like things that heat up in the micro to 100 degrees, and then slowly cool off over twelve hours. They're super hard plastic and say they don't offgas any chemicals, and they're safe to cover with fabric, a feather duster, or whatever your chickies need. I've been worrying over my chicks' temp for three weeks now, and I just now thought how nice it would be to have a heat source that can't fall down, won't burn anything, won't make it too bright and encourage pecking, and could be doubled or tripled up without danger. What do you think? I found a link to a similar one, but I think mine was smaller:

http://www.amazon.com/Pet-Supply-Imports-SnuggleSafe-Heating/dp/B00008AJH9

Would it be hot enough to keep the whole brooder warm, or is it good to mimic the "explore and then dive under mom" behavior by keeping only one side warm?

 

[TcherDawn]

By the end of the heat cycle of these warming pads, they would be giving off no heat and the chicks would be huddling, wouldn't they? I just read of someone losing many chicks to huddling. I am sure they were broooding more than 8 chicks though.