Hens go broody when you don’t want them to… and won’t go broody when you do. 
...that could have been much, much worse.
We had a red brooder bulb catch on fire, fall and kill two chicks in the brooder.
The entire plastic brooder box caught on fire but my daughter reacted quickly and grabbed the fire extinguisher, but it did not completely put out the fire. She and her grandmother pulled the semi-flaming brooder box out onto the back porch and finished putting it out there .
While there was a small amount of damage on the wood floor under the brooder, it is a miracle that nothing else caught on fire.
My daughters house was built in 1921 and is constructed of heart pine. Although we are heart broken for the 2 silkie chicks that died, we praise God that there was no more damage than there was. We also praise God that it happened on a day when all of us were there. Typically, my daughter is in classes at college and her grandmother might have been there alone. AND, even though I don't live there, I happened to be there today working in the silkie pens since it was a holiday.
So we feel so very blessed even though we have grieved throughout the day. The cleanup took a very long time today.
To be clear, the light was very secure...the bulb itself must have malfunctioned and spontaneously broke in the neck of the bulb. We keep the brooder box in the spare bedroom/office.
I don't think we will be able to use the red brooder bulbs anymore...just too traumatic. I use the ceramic heat emitter when I first hatch at my house, so we are going to replace all the red brooder bulbs with the ceramic heat emitters.
Be careful folks....one more minute and her house would have gone up in flames.
We had a red brooder bulb catch on fire, fall and kill two chicks in the brooder.
While there was a small amount of damage on the wood floor under the brooder, it is a miracle that nothing else caught on fire.
My daughters house was built in 1921 and is constructed of heart pine. Although we are heart broken for the 2 silkie chicks that died, we praise God that there was no more damage than there was. We also praise God that it happened on a day when all of us were there. Typically, my daughter is in classes at college and her grandmother might have been there alone. AND, even though I don't live there, I happened to be there today working in the silkie pens since it was a holiday.
So we feel so very blessed even though we have grieved throughout the day. The cleanup took a very long time today.
To be clear, the light was very secure...the bulb itself must have malfunctioned and spontaneously broke in the neck of the bulb. We keep the brooder box in the spare bedroom/office.
I don't think we will be able to use the red brooder bulbs anymore...just too traumatic. I use the ceramic heat emitter when I first hatch at my house, so we are going to replace all the red brooder bulbs with the ceramic heat emitters.
Be careful folks....one more minute and her house would have gone up in flames.
