Never use a heat lamp

[nuthatched]

I'm sorry for your loss but really....it's excessive. How do you know it was the heat lamp? It sounds like there was quite a bit of flammable material, wiring, gas, grease etc.

 

[Blooie]

Same. I always experience higher loses when I don't use the lamps at least for the first few days with my shipped chicks. And when the temperature is too low for a heating plate, I simply don't have a choice if I don't want birds to freeze.

But I also make sure it is secured so that it doesn't fall into the brooders or shavings

Isn‘t it odd? The highest losses we ever had happened 8 years ago with our first chicks, raised indoors under a heat lamp. We lost 6. The next year I set up my Mama Heating Pad and started the little boogers outdoors. Never lost another chick in the subsequent 7 years of multiple batches. We just picked up brand new chicks a couple of hours ago, and guess where they are?

At the moment MHP and the chicks are out there in two boxes taped together, so if they wander around they can find their way back. We’ll take the boxes out Sunday after they know where MHP is.

If the heat lamp is secured, how does the fire start? Not trying to be an ass just genuinely curious since this seems like a topic people are either all in or all out about. I've brooded chicks with heat lamps for years. You said yours was secured but a fire started anyway.

There are many ways a heat lamp - or absolutely any heat producing electrical appliance, from a coffee pot to a phone charger - can start a fire. An overheated outlet. An overheated bulb. An overheated shroud causing the socket to get too hot. A few drops of water from a chick shaking them off his beak can shatter a bulb, sending hot shards into the bedding. Dust buildup. A feather floating into it. Incompatible electrical ratings, be it bulb-to-socket, electrical draw to outlet, or improper use of extension cords. A panicked chick or adult sometimes flies straight up, possibly shattering a bulb despite a cage around it.

Anytime we are using heat sources around combustibles, accidents are possible, and that’s any kind of heat source. Any source. Me? Given a choice between the lesser of two evils, I’ll stick with Mama Heating Pad. Grab the business end of a running heat lamp. Now grab a running heating pad. I rest my case. That said, anyone who knows me has heard me say a thousand times….I can tell folks what I use and why. But I have no right to demand that they do it my way. They are there, I am not. They know their setup, climate, and personal comfort zones far better than I do. If there was only one way to raise chicks, this entire web site could be read in half an hour. We all need to decide what’s right for us. But I will continue to offer MHP as an alternative way to raise chicks. What folks do is up to them.

@mistrtom, I am so deeply sorry for what you’ve just gone through , and what battles still lie ahead for you. You have enough to worry about right now - don’t let misplaced guilt make it harder.

 

[MysteryChicken]

I've switched from Heat Lamp, to Heating Plate, not just because of how difficult it can be to raise to not have over heated peeps, but due to the fire risk. I did have my heat lamp when using, clamped, & gorilla taped to something.

Sorry about what happened to your place, & peeps.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Isn‘t it odd? The highest losses we ever had happened 8 years ago with our first chicks, raised indoors under a heat lamp. We lost 6. The next year I set up my Mama Heating Pad and started the little boogers outdoors. Never lost another chick in the subsequent 7 years of multiple batches. We just picked up brand new chicks a couple of hours ago, and guess where they are?

You must just have sturdier chicks or warmer temperatures than I do if you don't need a heat lamp for them from the start. I just know lamps work best for me

 

[JAMarlow]

So so sorry for your loss! I remember a neighbors house catching fire when I was a kid from a heat lamp used for new baby chicks. This was back in the 80's or early 90s I think? In any case, it made a real big impression on my.

Fast forward to the new chicks this year. A family member is still upset that I spent money on a plate brooder instead of using the old heat lamp they had in the back shed, viewing it as a waste. But I was so uncomfortable with it that I kept having dreams about it. So yes, I ordered it. And the chicks LOVED it! Even better, I haven't been worried about a house fire, or roasted chicks. I view it as money well spent. Told my neighbors about it and offered to loan it to them if they ever get new chicks in the future. It can just be a neighborhood brooder plate!

Again, so sorry about the fire. I really feel for you. Thank you for posting the warning here for others to see it. More new chick Moms and Dads need to be aware of the dangers!

 

[Blooie]

@JacinLarkwell

Nope. Same kinds of chicks everyone else gets. And here in Wyoming our springtime “chick season” temperatures are still in the 20s, dipping into the teens, with sideways blowing snow. My chicks never see an artificial light of any kind….no nightlights, no overhead lights, no heat lamps.

These are Silkie chicks, outdoors in the run under their Mama Heating Pad, when it was 29 degrees. Notice how they can put their backs right up against the heat, and the soft, hen-like texture of the underside of the pad. It’s warm under there, and dark and secure. In fact, the only difference between a broody hen and MHP is that MHP doesn’t move…,she’s always right there in the same spot when they need her.

I wondered years ago - if a two pound hen can successfully raise her broods outdoors among the flock, regardless of weather, without heat lamps, nightlights, books, magazines, charts, experts and web sites, why do we do it so differently and think we’re doing it better? So the only experts I depended on were broody hens. Everything I do is designed to duplicate her as closely as possible. And it works.

I’m expecting a first class chickie temper tantrum tonight. We picked up the new Littles at a feed store today, so all they’ve ever known is lights 24/7. They aren’t going to be happy as the sun goes down and it starts getting dark out there. But they’ll forgive me.

 

[nuthatched]

Isn‘t it odd? The highest losses we ever had happened 8 years ago with our first chicks, raised indoors under a heat lamp. We lost 6. The next year I set up my Mama Heating Pad and started the little boogers outdoors. Never lost another chick in the subsequent 7 years of multiple batches. We just picked up brand new chicks a couple of hours ago, and guess where they are?

At the moment MHP and the chicks are out there in two boxes taped together, so if they wander around they can find their way back. We’ll take the boxes out Sunday after they know where MHP is.

There are many ways a heat lamp - or absolutely any heat producing electrical appliance, from a coffee pot to a phone charger - can start a fire. An overheated outlet. An overheated bulb. An overheated shroud causing the socket to get too hot. A few drops of water from a chick shaking them off his beak can shatter a bulb, sending hot shards into the bedding. Dust buildup. A feather floating into it. Incompatible electrical ratings, be it bulb-to-socket, electrical draw to outlet, or improper use of extension cords. A panicked chick or adult sometimes flies straight up, possibly shattering a bulb despite a cage around it.

Anytime we are using heat sources around combustibles, accidents are possible, and that’s any kind of heat source. Any source. Me? Given a choice between the lesser of two evils, I’ll stick with Mama Heating Pad. Grab the business end of a running heat lamp. Now grab a running heating pad. I rest my case. That said, anyone who knows me has heard me say a thousand times….I can tell folks what I use and why. But I have no right to demand that they do it my way. They are there, I am not. They know their setup, climate, and personal comfort zones far better than I do. If there was only one way to raise chicks, this entire web site could be read in half an hour. We all need to decide what’s right for us. But I will continue to offer MHP as an alternative way to raise chicks. What folks do is up to them.

@mistrtom, I am so deeply sorry for what you’ve just gone through , and what battles still lie ahead for you. You have enough to worry about right now - don’t let misplaced guilt make it harder.

No man made system is perfect. We've had a brand new heating pad catch fire, set a mattress on fire. We thank God someone forgot something in my parents room or the house would have gone up while we were gone. I get what you're saying though. :]

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Isn‘t it odd? The highest losses we ever had happened 8 years ago with our first chicks, raised indoors under a heat lamp. We lost 6. The next year I set up my Mama Heating Pad and started the little boogers outdoors. Never lost another chick in the subsequent 7 years of multiple batches. We just picked up brand new chicks a couple of hours ago, and guess where they are?

At the moment MHP and the chicks are out there in two boxes taped together, so if they wander around they can find their way back. We’ll take the boxes out Sunday after they know where MHP is.

There are many ways a heat lamp - or absolutely any heat producing electrical appliance, from a coffee pot to a phone charger - can start a fire. An overheated outlet. An overheated bulb. An overheated shroud causing the socket to get too hot. A few drops of water from a chick shaking them off his beak can shatter a bulb, sending hot shards into the bedding. Dust buildup. A feather floating into it. Incompatible electrical ratings, be it bulb-to-socket, electrical draw to outlet, or improper use of extension cords. A panicked chick or adult sometimes flies straight up, possibly shattering a bulb despite a cage around it.

Anytime we are using heat sources around combustibles, accidents are possible, and that’s any kind of heat source. Any source. Me? Given a choice between the lesser of two evils, I’ll stick with Mama Heating Pad. Grab the business end of a running heat lamp. Now grab a running heating pad. I rest my case. That said, anyone who knows me has heard me say a thousand times….I can tell folks what I use and why. But I have no right to demand that they do it my way. They are there, I am not. They know their setup, climate, and personal comfort zones far better than I do. If there was only one way to raise chicks, this entire web site could be read in half an hour. We all need to decide what’s right for us. But I will continue to offer MHP as an alternative way to raise chicks. What folks do is up to them.

@mistrtom, I am so deeply sorry for what you’ve just gone through , and what battles still lie ahead for you. You have enough to worry about right now - don’t let misplaced guilt make it harder.

Well I'm not unplugging my coffee pot haha. All the things you list sound like juat common sense electrical issues except water shattering the bulb and startled chickens flying into the lamp, both of which are preventable by having something like a grate between the chicks and the lamp. I use a dog kennel panel and an appliance box so my heat lamp doesnt rely on those silly wires over it. I'm not saying heat lamps are safe but I'm still not convinced that a little common sense can't make them safe enough to use for a couple weeks. My real question is how this happened in this particular case since the op seems very certain that was the cause of this horrendous fire. I am certainly open to brooding a different, "safer" way but my heating pad doesn't get hot enough for my arthritis and has so many warnings on it I'm not convinced that's the way to go either lol. Lots of time to do more research before next spring though. I believe I read your thread about the MHP and it does look more natural than having a light on 24/7.

 

[The Moonshiner]

 

[cluckmecoop7]

I have a heat lamp in my coop right now for young chicks. Unfortunately i currently don’t have a choice. This post terrified me