White light, red light..Is the "veil" lifted?

[Princess Lay-a]

I have been using a 250 watt red bulb the past 2.5 weeks and all has been well. Raising it so as to reduce the brooder temp. I thought about putting in lower watt white bulb to getting them use to cooler temps.

I went in while they were sleepy and switched out the bulbs. Within 30 seconds they were up and looking at each other like a veil was lifted and they had never seen each other before!

There were easily 5 kung-fu sparring events going on at any one time!

Big ones and little, boys and girls!

Flying about and crazy!

I pulled the plug and they stopped, changed back to the red bulb, flipped it on and they went back to quietly peeping and returning to roost and snuggling.

They way they walked back to the roost reminded me of the Eloi in "The Time Machine" when the sirens sounded and they zombie walked right into the Morlock's trap!!

Good movie BTW!

Does the white vs. the red light make that much of a difference in their behavior and when IS a good time to change lights of so?!

 

[kathyinmo]

I have also noticed a major difference in the two. As a matter of fact, I had 15 chicks each in two different brooders. One had the red light, and one had the white light. (Note: temp the same in each brooder) The ones with the white light were much more flighty and unsettled. In addition to that, I lost 3 chicks one each day) under the white light, and none with the red. I had no pasty butts under the red, and had 3 under the white (not the ones that died, however).

I dunno, these are just the results of my experiment....

 

[felidaet]

There is no good time to switch to white lights. Stick with red. You can find lower wattage red bulbs at some pet stores. I have a 100 watt red bulb. I saw that they had smaller ones as well.

 

[ondreeuh]

I've heard the red causes less pecking, but I thought it was because it made it harder to see red body parts (like vents). I've been taking my chicks outside periodically since they were a week old and never noticed any issues with the change of light (of course there are lots of distractions outside!). Mine are nearly 6 weeks old and spending most of the day outside in a pen (no fights), and we just turned off the brooder light last night.

 

[Tala]

I never have noticed any difference. I have used both colors of bulbs and never had any issues.

For a lower wattage bulb you can often get a 75watt GE brand floodlight at Walmart/Lowes/hardware stores, and they come in red.

 

[Princess Lay-a]

We've only had a few instances of pecking with our Turken's skinny neck. So I think the red light has helped with that. We'd take them outside for walk abouts if we didn't have nosy neighbors who want to tell on you for having chickens in the city.

Can't wait till we get down to our 20 acres!! GRR!

 

[aubreynoramarie]

Ive always used a red bulb, but my chicks have two windows in their little area, and have been able to have a little more light during the day. no fights, not one. they love eachother

now that theyre four weeks old they leave the boxed area and hang out on the window sills. theyre always together. no issues at all

 

[Princess Lay-a]

Ours get a lot of sunshine through the large garage windows during most of the day. That's why it's so puzzling that they acted like that when just the white light was on. We have an overhead light that we turn on when cleaning, feeding and playing with them, and that light washes out the red one. Never had them freak out like that before.

 

[aubreynoramarie]

maybe they just need a good lecture.

 

[sally4500]

The same thing happened to me. I wanted to clean the brooder, (the chicks were around 3 weeks old) so unplugged the light in the middle of the day. They freaked out and ran around in a frenzy, screaming and actually runnig into the sides of the brooder, like they could not see. So I immediately plugged it back in, and they went back to their peacefulness. Scared the crap out of me. So after that I would clean the brooder with the light on.

Now they are 5 weeks old, and out in the coop. They don't mind the light off during the day because they are out in the run anyway. But I leave the light on at night, just in case it gets too cold. They are just so darned cute.