Chicks do find a way to knock them over.
I have always used heat lamps, but never trust just the clamp. I would bolt them, or chain them, and never used a 300w lamp.
One time I had a bunch of chicks 4 weeks old in a brood box. In side a building connected to a carport. This time I had the lamp on the out side of the box, resting on top of a wire lid, thinking it was not going anywhere, why chain it. The lamp 100w or less, had the metal cover shade, but not the metal hoops below the light part. Anyhow I had a very active leghorn chick who escaped the enclosure. The lamp landed on the floor of the brood box which was cardboard.
The lamp burned through the box, then the floor in a circle the size of the lamp. all the chicks were fine, the metal cover kept the fire from spreading, and the bulb never exploded.
I have always used heat lamps, but never trust just the clamp. I would bolt them, or chain them, and never used a 300w lamp.
One time I had a bunch of chicks 4 weeks old in a brood box. In side a building connected to a carport. This time I had the lamp on the out side of the box, resting on top of a wire lid, thinking it was not going anywhere, why chain it. The lamp 100w or less, had the metal cover shade, but not the metal hoops below the light part. Anyhow I had a very active leghorn chick who escaped the enclosure. The lamp landed on the floor of the brood box which was cardboard.
The lamp burned through the box, then the floor in a circle the size of the lamp. all the chicks were fine, the metal cover kept the fire from spreading, and the bulb never exploded.
