Guess what caught on fire???

[BackToMyRoots]

Ooh, good point. Maybe there's a way to put a "fresh" one at the other end of the brooder a few hours before the first one runs out. Maybe there's just no easy way to do this!

 

[Kedreeva]

Glad that this did not end up as a disaster! *phew*!

I don't know that there is ever really a 'safe' way to keep a place heated because heat is typically not that safe to create. There's always a risk of overheating the wrong thing at the wrong time.

THAT being said, I do use a low-watt reptile basking lamp (a white light bulb with a focused heat area) but I couple this with a heating pad. NOT an animal heating pad, one you would use on a human for things like menstrual cramps or to soothe a muscle. It plugs into the wall, comes in a cloth cover, and even at its hottest has a minimal risk of going wrong. I place the pad underneath so it only covers half the brooder, which is slightly more than the light's heat covers- I often find them sleeping toward the middle of the cage, on the pad but away from the light, which I have assumed means they enjoy a cuddle-able heat source while not having to sit in hot air. There are three levels of heat and I start at the highest- once they start sleeping off the pad, turn it down a level, down a level, and then I remove it and they sleep under the light if they need heat.

My brooders are made of cardboard with shavings for bedding, so the heat from underneath conducts pretty well. I always wondered why people only place heat lamps on top of the brooder if heat rises

EDIT: I went and looked up a similar product (ours is old and I'm not sure of the brand) but it is something like this: http://www.walgreens.com/store/catalog/Joint-and-Muscle-Pain/Dry-Heating-Pad/ID=prod2302107-product

 

[beth59]

So glad everything's okay. We almost had a fire earlier this year. We had a plug in timer for our brooder light in our coop. When I came home for lunch and went to check on the babies, the timer was shorting out. Thank Heaven, I came home for lunch when I did. So scary what could have happened.

Beth