Near death experience for my ducks

[TheRealTimShady]

Ok so this is more a warning for others and also a learning experience for myself

Last night I was awaken to the sound of fire alarms in my house at 2am. Got up, whole house was a thick cloud of smoke. Turns out the heat lamp for my duck brooder fell off(no clue how, it’s been in the same spot two weeks) and landed in the pine shavings and started to burn. Luckily it never actually caught fire but just smoked out our whole house.

No ducks were harmed. Everyone is ok.

But I did learn a lesson that sometimes reusing old stuff isn’t always the best. In this instance I had an old heat lamp that did not have a protective cage around the bulb. If I had just spent the money on a new one this probably wouldn’t have been to bad as the bulb would not of been touching the shavings.


Lesson learned, and I felt I needed to pass it on that sometimes trying to save some money just isn’t worth it because you never know what will happen. Take care of them babies everyone.

 

[Eggcessive]

Glad that you discovered the ponlem and were able to save your ducks and your house. Heat lamps are made so cheaply, and can be very dangerous. If I have to use one, I always double secure it by wrapping the cord around a 2x4 in a half knot. It helps to use a lower wattage bulb as well, since the 250 watt red lamps are so hot. They make a 125 watt one sold by some places There are newer heat plates, flat panel heaters, and sweeter heater pads, for chicks and ducklings along with homemade mama heating pads.

 

[TheRealTimShady]

Glad that you discovered the ponlem and were able to save your ducks and your house. Heat lamps are made so cheaply, and can be very dangerous. If I have to use one, I always double secure it by wrapping the cord around a 2x4 in a half knot. It helps to use a lower wattage bulb as well, since the 250 watt red lamps are so hot. They make a 125 watt one sold by some places There are newer heat plates, flat panel heaters, and sweeter heater pads, for chicks and ducklings along with homemade mama heating pads.

Going forward on broods I’ll probably use a heat pad. Checked everyone this morning and everyone seems fine. All the ducks will get a bath today as well so they can clean out their noses because some have some buildup around their nostrils probably from breathing in the smoke

I was just happy to wake up to no dead ducks, my 9yr old would have been devastated.