Need heat lamp advice for chicks

[horsefeathers09]

I'm preparing my brooder for 15 chicks coming next week. I'll have them in the garage for the first 5 weeks then they'll go to the outdoor coop and yard. My outdoor coop is nice but I can't guarantee it's going to be waterproof if we get a heavy rain. Is there such a thing as a waterproof heat lamp? The other question I have is if I should use a heat lamp with no light or a 75 watt red bulb in my brooder - getting mixed advice on that subject. I do have light in my garage and a night light on all the time. Oh, I live in Arizona, so it rarely drops below 40 at night in the outdoor coop and yard. Thanks! amy

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Always secure whatever type of lamp you use two different ways so that if one fails you'll still be ok.

New chicks usually require at least a 250 watt bulb or two 100 watt bulbs around 18-24" above the shavings. Here is a good primer on chick care from my first hatchery:
http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/chickcare.html

Some (not me) use red bulbs to reduce picking.

I moved mine to my coop which was a good brooder too when they were 3 weeks old or so. But some of mine got pasty butt so I don't know whether to recommend that or not.

For in the coop, I've had a heat lamp explode outside.

So for "in the coop", I use 100 watt bulbs (two of them in case one burns out during the night), decreasing to two 60 watt ones as they get older, then one 60 watt bulb. Then at around 6 weeks old, stopped them (when they tried like heck to get away from the 60 watt bulb at night).

 

[maggiemooscluckers]

Quote:
Hello Horsefeathers, I am also in AZ and have 5 week old chicks. I know that all chicks are the same but life here in the desert isn't like everywhere else. I had all the high watt bulbs and stuff that I thought I would need for the chicks and didn't end up using them. The hottest bulb I ever used was a 100 watts and that was when they were in the house. Usually a 60 watt regular bulb kept the brooder nice and snuggly for my babies. I had a thermometer but it worked best to just watch the chicks response to the heat. Most of the time they just snuggled together away from the light. I ended up putting the chicks into the coop at 3 weeks old due to the mess in my house. They did just fine. I did run the 60 watt bulb for about 4 nights but since the temps never got below 80 I didn't worry about it. Now that they are 5 weeks and fully feathered they prefer to sleep out in the run with no light or heat. I really made it harder than it should be by trying to follow everyone's advice. It's all good but just wasn't necessary for my location. Don't know where you are in AZ but if you're in the valley you know that for me these next few days are more about keeping them cool not warm! Good luck with your babies. Checkout the AZ chickens thread. Lots of good people with AZ advice.

 

[horsefeathers09]

Thank you. Yes, it is very difficult to follow advice on raising chicks when you live in Arizona - keeping them cool is the trick here! Thanks for helping.