how many watts for a heat lamp?

[lra2000us]

lol, fred's hens

 

[teach1rusl]

Oh yeah...if your house temps are in the 80s, you'd cook those little chicks with a 250!!! If you're wanting the red bulbs, you can find a variety of wattages in pet stores, in the lizard section. I've got 75s, 100s, (and the standard 250 brooder bulb), but they're available in lower wattages than that.

 

[CowgirlPenny]

Quote:
What month was this? I'm in middle TN, getting chicks in the last half of April and probably going to end up putting the brooder box on the "porch" (really, a deck with a roof) for the first couple of weeks so I can check on them a million times. I'm worried about keeping them warm enough without cooking them when the daytime temps are approaching 80 and the night temps are still dipping into the 40s. I've already determined that I'm probably going to have to build a new lid because the way it is now, you can't adjust the height of the light which limits any temperature adjustments to switching bulbs.

This month. LOL Like, tonight.

I have 12 almost 5 week old ones out in the coop, and 3 five day old chicks outside in the brooder on the porch I mentioned.

With a daytime temp that high, you'll want to turn your light off in the day when they are starting to feather (around 3 weeks) and then just turn it on at night again for them. We stopped using the brooder light indoors at 3.5 weeks. I even went to Gatlinburg for two days, left them inside in the brooder with no light, no heat on, and they were perfectly fine when we returned.

For my outside porch chicks, when we start to warm back up in the day time, I will probably have to start turning their light off, moving it higher, or removing a side of the cardboard around their cage to stop them from overheating. I'd just play it by ear and see what your conditions are. I would use a lower wattage for that warm of weather though. Definitely not 250.

 

[tigercreek]

I use a 250watt, with a dimmer that I bought in the electrical section at home depot. Easy to adjust based on the chicks behavior. ..........stan

 

[jaketheeggman]

I used a 100 watt and put blankets around the brooder.

jake