Heat/Light 24/7?

[Urban Farmer]

Howdy!
I have 3 grown girls, but I just picked up 3 more day-olds. I have a brooder made of a tub, with food and water, and a lamp with a 75w bulb. Its around 100 in there, but I was wondering if I keep the light on all day/night. Seems like they'd have a hard time sleeping with the light on, but I don't want them to catch a chill.
Help?
Thanks!

 

[skyfires]

Welcome!!! Were glad your here!!!! Watch out,,,this place is very addicting,,,,I also have a sunken tub in my second bathroom which serves as my brooder. Its the perfect place I think. Seems like you have everything in order,,just make sure the bulb is hanging on one end of the tub. This way they can move to 'cool' spots if they want. The light never kept my chickys up any. They can sleep through anything,,,,again warm Welcome

 

[needmorechickens!]

First -->

You can use a red light bulb or red heat lamp (from walmart) or a ceramic heating element (from pet store reptile section) instead of the white light and it will not disturb them and it discourages picking....

~Rebecca

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
If it's around 100 in there, that may be why they are having trouble sleeping; they're too hot. Try raising the light or switching to a lower watt bulb.
They don't seem to mine a white light for sleeping, but pecking can become an issue. Red bulbs are harder to find, at least around here, but worth the search.

 

[BawkinOnTheBench]

I raised my first batch with a white heat lamp, before I found the reds. They were OK. They did cheep like crazy when they got older and I started turning off the light at night, but if you just ignore that they get over it.

 

[AngieK]

My husband read in a book that red heat lamps encourage picking. He said that the author said it resembles blood. Has anyone else heard of this? We've just been using a white lamp because of this and it seems to work fine.

 

[cmom]

Right now I have a week and a half old chicks in the brooder. I use a 60 watt incandesant bulb in a brooder lamp that sits on top of the brooder 24/7. I have a wireless digital thermometer to monitor the temp. I keep it around 95 degrees for the first week and decrease it 5 degrees a week. Here is a picture of my new chicks. They were 3 days old here.

 

[cmom]

Quote:
I use a red heat lamp when the temp here in Florida gets below 40 degrees. I'm a softie. Otherwise I use a red incandesant sign light. I leave it on 24/7. My big girls lay regulary. I used to use a regular incandesant light and had it on a timer so that they would have at least 14 hrs. of light during the winter months when the days are shorter, so they would lay better. Now I just leave the red one on all the time and they lay fine even in the winter months.

 

[BawkinOnTheBench]

Quote:
From what I've read, it discourages pecking. I think the theory is that it makes any actual redness from injury or whatever that much harder to see.

In any case, my red light isn't just red colored, it is infra-red - less visible light, more heat. Supposedly doesn't disrupt their normal daily rhythms as much.

I'm not sure how much I believe that - it says it emits 'very little' visible light, but I can easily see by it!

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
Chickens are (can't think of the term...omnivores?) anything eaters, and they are especially attracted to the color red (because of the blood

) Red lights would actually discourage pecking, because it would make everything look red. If you get an injured chick, the red light would make the blood look black, and it would not attract the other chicks.