My baby chicks are here - heat lamp questions

[8 Chicks 1967]

I use a 125 watt red lamp. Important to have a direct warm side and a cool side. Rule is 95 the first week and then 5 down every week until 70. Good water source that they cant drown in and chick starter/Grower and you will be good. Some use medicated starter /grower the first couple weeks with some chick grit. Just make sure if you use medicated and you have any other laying hens that they cant get to it. I have raised two sets this year. glad to have it over. You might want to consider taking them out for shorter periods of time starting about 5 weeks to get more acclimated to the cold weather. this time of year they may need to be closer to 8 weeks or fully feathered before you let them send a night out.

 

[Birdinhand]

I have used heat lamps until this last year and now that I've found how much better a mother heating pad is i'll never go back. here is a link to the thread on how to build one.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...d-in-the-brooder-picture-heavy-update.956958/
there are variations on how to build one, you can start out super easy and just make a cave out of hardware cloth or something like it that slopes down in the back and gradually raise it as they grow, or you can spend more time and money upfront and make one that uses long bolts as legs and allows you to raise and lower the roof by adjusting the nuts. I made an more industrial strength one because I was raising 37 Cornish Cross meat birds and they run hot and grow fast and end up perching on top within a few weeks and they are heavy, so it had to be able to hold the weight.

my biggest issues with the heat lamp approach:
-bulbs burn out at inopportune times, like the middle of the night when you aren't around
-the bulbs are super hot, can easily burn the chicks if they come in contact with them.
-they are hot enough to give my daughter a serious burn that took over a month to heal and left a nasty scar.
-they pose a fire hazard... many a coop and even a few houses have burnt down from them.
- most of the heat produced by a lamp goes to waste and they cost quite a bit to run.

pros of a mother heating pad (MHP)
- incorporates a natural day and night cycle so the chicks sleep at night and grow more normally.
- the chicks can regulate their temperature more easily and are generally healthier and happier.
- the heating pads tend to last a very, very long time without burning out.
-they use a fraction of the electricity.
... the list goes on.

some basic peramaters:
you need a heating pad that either does not have an automatic shut off or allows you to override that, otherwise it will turn off after a set period of time. the sunbeam one seems to be the pad of choice for this application, it has a auto off overide:
https://www.target.com/p/sunbeam-17...Vk7fsCh3ZtwcpEAQYBSABEgLNvPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I recommend a lower wattage bulb as well. I personally use a 125 watt. The 250 are much too hot.

 

[Ridgerunner]

People have been using heat lamps to raise chicks for over a century. Accidents can happen with whatever method you use to provide heat but as long as you set it up properly they work well. Heat lamps can cause burns and fires, but so can other things.

I consider heating plates and heating pads to be excellent ways to provide heat to chicks in a brooder if they are set up and used safely. I know this is an old link, I think the number of deaths from heating pads has dropped to about 5 per year lately, not the 8 they mention in this link. If I remember right the number of burns from heating pads treated at emergency rooms has grown but I did not search long enough to get current statistics. I’m not including this link to scare people away from heating pads, but I am warning people that like everything else they need to be used safely. A false sense of security is dangerous.

http://thermo-pad.com/esafety.htm

My main suggestion for using a heat lamp safely is to throw away that clamp and securely fasten the lamp with wire or chain so it cannot fall. Do not use plastic or fiber that can melt or burn, use metal and make sure it is very secure. That clamp is dangerous. And keep it away from stuff that is flammable. Give it some distance.

My ideal brooder has one spot that is warm enough in the coolest conditions and a spot cool enough in the warmest of conditions. I brood outside using heat lamps and can have huge temperature swings, going from below freezing one day to above 70 F a couple of days later. In your house with climate control it should be a lot easier to manage. I find that chicks straight from the incubator or post office are excellent at managing that themselves as long as they have the option.

That 250 watt bulb is more than you need indoors. One risk in a heat lamp is that you overheat the chicks in a relatively small brooder. I use 75 or 125 watt bulbs in my outdoor brooder in summer but those can be hard to find. I had to order my bulbs online. I like the red heat lamp bulbs and all the feed stores or hardware stores carry here are the 250.

Size of the brooder is also important. At six weeks those chicks will be a lot bigger than they are now. I don’t know how big your brooder is now but you might want to think about some options to increase size if you need it. Some people will tell you that you need more room in your brooder than you need for your coop but I don’t find that necessary. For 15 pullets I’d suggest a minimum size of about 12 square feet, maybe a 3’ x 4’. Bigger is better. If you keep them in there much past six weeks that could get tight pretty quickly.

It’s generally a good idea to keep them locked in the coop only for about a week after you move then to the coop before you let them have access to the run. That gives them an idea of where home is. When I open the pop door to give them a chance to go into the run, sometimes all of mine are on the ground within 15 minutes, but usually not. Sometime it may take three days before they all build up the courage to go outside. I don’t rush mine, I let them make up their own minds. It can be hilarious to watch them decide if it is safe or not. Many things about chicken TV can be better than anything on cable, satellite, or antenna.

Sometimes they don’t automatically go back in the coop to sleep when it gets dark, mine often gather next to the door even if I’ve kept them in the coop for over a week before I let them out. I wait until they settle down for the night and lock them inside. Sometimes they get the message the first time, I’ve had some that take over three weeks of tossing them inside. Usually mine all get the message after about a week. You’ll find that each brood is different, you can never tell for sure what any of them will do.

Good luck and welcome to the adventure.

 

[DaviJones]

How are the chicks doing?

 

[downsfarm]

Back to update on the chicks! We still have all 15 - they are all eating, drinking, peeping, sleeping, etc like champs. Right now we have them in two huge connected totes -- so they are in something 5ft by 3ft. We are using the heat lamp - but I have it up so it's not directly on the hardware cloth that we're using for our top. Our chicken coop is built - we have the posts up for their fenced in area - now we just need to put the fencing up which we are doing today.

I'm trying to figure out how to protect them from hawks now. I thought about deer netting over their 300 sq ft yard? We don't have any trees/tall things to connect it to though. The fence itself is 48" tall. I want it to be tall enough so I can still walk around inside of the fenced area. My husband is also going to make some wooden structures for them to go underneath.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't know what size that 300 square feet area is but I totally agree you need to be able to walk under it. How about putting some tall posts, at least seven feet off the ground, maybe higher, with a cross lumber on top of that to stretch the deer netting over? One logistics problem would be to tie the strips of deer netting together at the seams so you don't have gaps. You could do that with zip ties, string, even hog rings. I don't remember if you said where you live but if you get snow or an ice storm the weight could bring it down.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Where are you located? We tried netting, but the heavy wet snows would bring it down at least once a winter. Now we have electric fence wire over our turkey run.

 

[RonC]

My last ones I brooded outside on the patio in an old workbench I screened in. Had a 125w heat lamp in one corner with windbreaks on that end and part of the back in that corner. One night it got down really cold so I covered about 3/4 of the brooder. I secured the clamp on lamp by wrapping the cord around a piece of the table top and tying a loose knot. Also put a screw so the loop on the clamp couldn't get pulled off the support. No way the lamp could hit the bedding even if it did come loose.
I have never locked my chicks in the coop. I go out the firs couple of nights and help them inside. Took about three nights as usually only one has to learn and the others will learn from each other. A small battery powered light in the coop can help too. Turn it off after they go in or use a solar light that can recharge itself.
I didn't catch how many you said you had but plan on at least 10 sq feet per bird in your run. Depending on whether they will be confined for periods during bad weather determines coop size.

 

[DGandC]

I've used heat lamps with no problem, just make sure they are not touching/too close to anything flammable. I have also used the heat plates. They work well in terms of keeping the chicks warm, but I noticed the chicks in the brooder with the heat plates were a lot more skittish, and liked hiding underneath it. One chick was so reluctant to leave that he didn't end up getting enough food and developed wry neck. :/ Once he got some food and vitamins he was OK, though, so if you do end up using one make sure they're getting plenty of food and water and handle them often.

If the feeder you're talking about looks like this or similar (just to clarify):


Then yes, you should be OK. I've had some chicks fall in, but they're easy to get out and they don't get injured. They'll be able to reach the food as long as you keep it full. Hope this helps! Good luck!