Heating your brooder?

[specTONKular]

Hi
So I had 8 eggs but 1 wasnt fertile so now have 7 eggs in my incubator and day 11 so far,so good. These one seem to be so much better than my previous attempts with ebay eggs!
As none of the eggs I had before hatched I never got to the point of setting up a brooder for newly hatched duckies and the duckings I bought were 4 weeks old and it was summer so I didn't need a heating source.
What do you use as your heat source? A heat mat, a heat lamp, a basking lamp with uva and uvb or one of those adjustable heating hen 30 as pictured below?
Thank you for reading and any advice given

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I use a heat plate similar to the one in the picture but sold by Premier1. It saves a lot of electricity over a heat lamp. And for just a few chicks/ducklings you can get away with the extra small version which is very reasonably priced.

 

[specTONKular]

Thank you so much for that! I was leaning toward heat plate.
Just like all of us, I want the best for my babies and I would much prefer to ask here rather than check the reviews on amazon which I believe are about 40% false.

 

[ruthhope]

I use a ceramic health lamp -- I don't like keeping ducklings in infrared type light 24/7 and the ceramic lamps produced for lizard tanks and the like, work very well in a brooder. They are also less likely to get broken between broods than the glass infrared lamps

 

[specTONKular]

Hmmm! I was originally thinking of the ceramic lamp until read up on plates. Oh the confusion of it all. Thank you for your help

 

[citymeetscountry]

I just used the heat plate thing that TSC switched to last year. Not ideal but it worked well for the ducklings last year and seems fine so far this year. We had 6 ducklings last year and 4 this year. The 4 this year we hatched out. It’s nice to be able to have the heat plate over them and then you can stand it upright wide or long and the ducks can choose if they want to be under or near the heat.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I just used the heat plate thing that TSC switched to last year. Not ideal but it worked well for the ducklings last year and seems fine so far this year. We had 6 ducklings last year and 4 this year. The 4 this year we hatched out. It’s nice to be able to have the heat plate over them and then you can stand it upright wide or long and the ducks can choose if they want to be under or near the heat.

Are you talking about the 'cozy coop' flat panel wall heater?

 

[citymeetscountry]

Are you talking about the 'cozy coop' flat panel wall heater?

The Producer’s Pride brooder and co-op heater

 

[BelovedBirds]

Hi
So I had 8 eggs but 1 wasnt fertile so now have 7 eggs in my incubator and day 11 so far,so good. These one seem to be so much better than my previous attempts with ebay eggs!
As none of the eggs I had before hatched I never got to the point of setting up a brooder for newly hatched duckies and the duckings I bought were 4 weeks old and it was summer so I didn't need a heating source.
What do you use as your heat source? A heat mat, a heat lamp, a basking lamp with uva and uvb or one of those adjustable heating hen 30 as pictured below?
Thank you for reading and any advice given

I havent used this model, but I used a similar plate for my two ducklings and it did a wonderful job. They did outgrow it quite quickly, but still, it did the job!
I prefer heating plates to lamps personally, just because it feels more natural and its easier for them to get away from the heat! Just make sure you set it at the right height, I had an age difference of 4 days between my babies, and set the back legs to be lower so that they had a varying height- that worked well for them.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I started with 250 watt infrared heat lamps in homemade 'Ohio' brooders back when I was raising 50 and 100 shipped chicks at a time in cold weather. Then because I was concerned about the birds needing a daily dark period. I switched to ceramic heat emitters that can be used in the same fixtures and had various wattages based on ambient temperature. They are less fragile than glass lamps and don't shed light 24 hours a day. The only drawback is you need to feel in front of them or have a Bluetooth thermometer to make sure they are still working.
I switched to heat plates when I had smaller broods from my own incubators and realized how much energy I was wasting using other elements.
I still have all the other options but I'm pretty hooked on the Premier1 heat plates.
Before one chooses a brooder heat option, determine what the ambient temperature will be and how many chicks will be brooding.