Poor cooked chicks

[giggleboxfarm]

I got a new order of chicks yesterday, some EE, dominique, black australorps, gold laced wyandottes, had them setup in the brooder with a light.. was laid down in my bed with my 8mo old to get him to sleep and hurt some loud chirping. My husband bets this is caused by my 3yr old son, and goes out to check.
5min later I go out near them to see the freaking light had fallen down on top of some of them!! I'm going *$&$ I thought you checked on them! But no, he saw my son on the couch and got distracted by the tv. omg I just about killed him. 5 chicks were trapped underneath with a 100watt ceramic bulb, you could smell singed fluff, and 1 was trapped with the light edge right on his neck. The poor things were panting. I about cried. My husband took 3 to the fridge trying to cool them down. I grabbed a bag of frozen peas and held them right above that - let me say that that worked really well. Got them all cooled down so they weren't panting. They seem to all be fine today. but geeeeez, I could hear that something with up with my chicks, they were chirping loudly. Nobody else seems to get that if they are loud, its for a reason, so nobody checked them and wouldn't have until I said something. Needless to say I've got the light double hooked.

 

[MandyH]

I burnt my whole entire hatchery building down with a lamp that wasn't clamped well. People don't understand what those things can do.

 

[giggleboxfarm]

Holy cow! those 250watt things are nuts. I liked how we had it setup with a wire cage, the light could rest on the wire or be raised up above it with a rope for the purpose. The top of the cage acted as a failsafe for that. That was when we just had a few chicks. I'm going to have to figure something else out, but right now I'm using a huge tupperware from walmart.. my kids thought it was great because its practically coffin sized. kids and boxes, sheesh. But it didn't have anything to stop it from falling all the way in if the clamp failed.

 

[yinepu]

I use old metal bird cages for brooders.. so I can tie the light to a sturdy perch.. it's very secure and i dont have to worry about starting a fire..
I did just order one of the Brinsea brooders though (ok.. i couldn't resist!).
http://www.brinsea.com/prod-EcoGlow_20_Chick_Brooder-239.aspx
I will have several batches of turkey poults and chicks within the next few weeks so I need to have extra brooders ready.
I've never trusted those 250 watt clamp lights!

 

[Nicole01]

First of all, I'm glad the bulb didn't start your house or brooder on fire! How scary. Secondly, I'm glad your chicks are okay. We have a 100 watt bulb, but not ceramic. I'm buying a ceramic bulb for the coop, I've heard they are pretty safe. I'm the only one in charge of the chicks, no one will help me. That's fine, I love every minute I spend with them. My chicks are 11-17 weeks and I still check on them every 2 hours while I'm awake. Now I'm waiting for eggs.

Oh, we have a wire thing on our brooder lamp just in case it falls, so it doesn't have direct contact with the floor.

 

[chickens friend]

Get a sweeter heater, they cannot burn your chicks, cannot burn down a barn and are energy efficient. They are on the high side, but if you raise ducks then you know about having to buy lots of heater bulbs, but the sweeter heater does not use bulbs and cannot be broken by water being splashed onto it. I have been using one this entire season and have breed ducks earlier in the year and are now brooding chicks under the heater and I am well pleased. The website is www.sweeterheater.com . Good luck with your chicks.

 

[countrychix]

Quote:
I use those tubs too and just lay some 1/2" hardware cloth over the top folding it along the long edges so that it doesn't fall off. Keeps the chicks safe and the lamp can rest right on the cloth.

 

[BooBear]

Glad that your wee chickies are ok.

I traded my light for broodie hens.....(not on purpose though, they all just decided to go baby crazy)

 

[Dutchgirl]

That (almost) happened once with our pair of ducklings. We had had a piece of foil and an extra lamp near the cage for heating purposes, *just in case*. Then the 6-year-old comes along and turns on BOTH heat lamps, AND covered it with foil. We discovered them trying their best to cool off in their drinking water and panting their heads off. Poor little birds.