Red Heat Bulb vs Infrared Bulb?

[~*Sweet Cheeks*~]

Hi all -

I have my 4 wk old chicks in 169 gal stock tank in unheated enclosed sunroom with two 250 watt red heat bulbs on them. One of the bulbs burned out last night at 670 hours despite the box saying it should have lasted an average of 6000.

In a few wks when the girls are fully feathered, I plan to move out to 12' x 12' Noble horse stall with event front I'm turning into chicken condo.

I planned to continue with the red heat bulb but after looking at the ShoptheCoop site here, I saw the Infrared Heat Bulbs offered in 100/150/250 watts that they say last 2 yrs.

http://www.shopthecoop.com/id87.html

Does anyone have experience with the Infrared Heat Bulbs vs the Red Heat Bulbs? Recommendations and/or suggestions greatly appreciated.

I'm in Olympia, WA - Western WA with night time temps down to 32' lately with a snow storm last Sunday.

 

[cluckylisa]

Will the coop be insulated?

 

[~*Sweet Cheeks*~]

No - it's just thick galvanized pole frame with plywood and metal roof.

Site pic: http://www.noblepanels.com/ProdPics_Large/shelter-solid-event-front.jpg

Which leads me to my next question:
Should I cover some of the event front with more than just hardware cloth and/or cut a hole in back side up top covered with hardward cloth as well for ventilation? The front of the shelter is facing south.

Thank you

 

[geareduplyn]

I like the Infra-Red better although I do use a 3 watt red attraction light. This place has the best prices http://www.petmountain.com/ Search for Reptile heaters.

 

[AHappychick]

I use them also it costs less in the long run and my house does not look like it is lit up for Christmas anymore lol

edited to say that they generate a lot of heat and can cause a fire just the same as a reg. bulb, i almost had a bad opps once.

 

[Jenski]

I have infrared bulbs in both glass and ceramic, and I also have regular red incandescent bulbs as well.

I mostly use the ceramic heat lamps in my grown hen coops, but I am also trying one right now in my 4-week chick brooder. This is helping them get used to a day-night schedule. (They have the regular room light during the day.)

My younger chicks are still on the red incandescent bulbs, but this is mostly because that's what I originally bought for them. I guess I like younger chicks (1-2 weeks) to have light instead of just heat at night because they sleep and wake so often.

I like my ceramic bulbs, and have found them quite safe and much less breakable than incandescent bulbs. The one time I dropped one on concrete, it simply made a clean split right at the base with no shattering or tiny shards of ceramic.

Hope that info helps.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Just so people don't get confused, the red heat bulbs also provide infrared wavelength light. They are an infrared bulb that is made in a way that they produce some visible light and a lot of infrared light. Mine have lasted a long time.

The infrared bulbs on the Shop the Coop site are also often called ceramic heat bulbs.

Infrared light is light we don't see, but experience as heat. The bad light for chicks and chickens is bright white light that's on 24 hours a day.

It's nice that the ceramics come in more wattage choices, especially for so many people brooding indoors and/or with just a few chicks. I've seen more people using them and I haven't heard anything bad about them.

 

[~*Sweet Cheeks*~]

Thank you all for your input. It is greatly appreciated and very helpful for someone new to chickens.

Any advice on wattage? Is the heat of a 250 watt infrated bulb the same as that of a red bulb?

I'm trying to decide what watt infrared bulb to buy when I get ready to put the girls out in the coop in a month or so.

 

[Guinea Goonie]

I am confused. How can a ceramic heat coil emit light, even light that we can not see ?

Heat waves my be an energy source in the form of a wave, but I do not think ceramic has the capacity to emit light from its atomic structure.

Infrafred lamps generally have a gas or a special filiment.

You telling me if I heated up my ceramic dinner plate it would
give off infrared light waves ?

Any who, the ceramic heating coils are EXCELLENT for a heat source. I have found a infrared heat bulb at a local pet shop that is 150 watts. the 150 watts ceramics are 39 bucks, the lamp is 12 bucks.

 

[cmom]

Depending on how cold it gets I use either a 175 watt or 250 watt red heat lamp which cost around $5.00 mol.