Worried about heat lamp

[RaeRae2]

When I was growing up, my grandmother raised thousands of chickens. She had incubators, and she would hatch out a couple hundred at a time. She sold them locally, as well as maintaining her own flock of around 100 chickens or so at any given time. In a way I guess you could say she ran her own hatchery. She had many breeds and kept them separate so they were purebred. People would get on her waiting list for chicks.

I honestly don't hardly EVER remember her putting lights on any of them. The brooders were full of hot water bottles wrapped in towels. As a kid, I remember collecting the glass bottles (mayonaise jars, canning jars, jelly jars), and refilling them with boiling water from the gas stove, wrapping them in towels, loading them into a laundry basket, and carrying them back to the brooder boxes. We would make a ring with the bottles and the chicks were inside the ring of bottles. They seemed perfectly happy and content, and she had very few chick losses. Bottles were changed out 2x a day.

This was in Tennessee, where it was naturally warm anyway. I don't think this would cut it in the cold North.

If a particularly cold front of weather came through, they might get a 100w light for a day or so, and then that was it. But that was very rare. Back to the bottles. She was FAR too thrifty to waste electricity on chickens!

It was cheaper to boil the water on the gas stove. Or sometimes she would just build a fire in the pot belly stove down in the basement and set the brooder boxes near the stove. The firewood was free since we lived way out in the sticks.

I really love looking at everyone's beautiful, fancy brooder boxes and Eco-Glow contraptions, but I still smile to think back on the "old days" with grandma raising chicks. My own chicks are enjoying a 250W red light right now, and I kind of laugh to think that grandma would chastise me for wasting all that money on chickens. LOL. Some time before they are grown, I just want to fill up some canning jars with hot water, wrap them in towels, and go put them in my brooder. Just for old time sake!

 

[ragerkid2]

When I was growing up, my grandmother raised thousands of chickens. She had incubators, and she would hatch out a couple hundred at a time. She sold them locally, as well as maintaining her own flock of around 100 chickens or so at any given time. In a way I guess you could say she ran her own hatchery. She had many breeds and kept them separate so they were purebred. People would get on her waiting list for chicks.

I honestly don't hardly EVER remember her putting lights on any of them. The brooders were full of hot water bottles wrapped in towels. As a kid, I remember collecting the glass bottles (mayonaise jars, canning jars, jelly jars), and refilling them with boiling water from the gas stove, wrapping them in towels, loading them into a laundry basket, and carrying them back to the brooder boxes. We would make a ring with the bottles and the chicks were inside the ring of bottles. They seemed perfectly happy and content, and she had very few chick losses. Bottles were changed out 2x a day.

This was in Tennessee, where it was naturally warm anyway. I don't think this would cut it in the cold North.

If a particularly cold front of weather came through, they might get a 100w light for a day or so, and then that was it. But that was very rare. Back to the bottles. She was FAR too thrifty to waste electricity on chickens!

It was cheaper to boil the water on the gas stove. Or sometimes she would just build a fire in the pot belly stove down in the basement and set the brooder boxes near the stove. The firewood was free since we lived way out in the sticks.

I really love looking at everyone's beautiful, fancy brooder boxes and Eco-Glow contraptions, but I still smile to think back on the "old days" with grandma raising chicks. My own chicks are enjoying a 250W red light right now, and I kind of laugh to think that grandma would chastise me for wasting all that money on chickens. LOL. Some time before they are grown, I just want to fill up some canning jars with hot water, wrap them in towels, and go put them in my brooder. Just for old time sake!

Whatever woks, works.

 

[QuietPony]

When I was growing up, my grandmother raised thousands of chickens. She had incubators, and she would hatch out a couple hundred at a time. She sold them locally, as well as maintaining her own flock of around 100 chickens or so at any given time. In a way I guess you could say she ran her own hatchery. She had many breeds and kept them separate so they were purebred. People would get on her waiting list for chicks.

I honestly don't hardly EVER remember her putting lights on any of them. The brooders were full of hot water bottles wrapped in towels. As a kid, I remember collecting the glass bottles (mayonaise jars, canning jars, jelly jars), and refilling them with boiling water from the gas stove, wrapping them in towels, loading them into a laundry basket, and carrying them back to the brooder boxes. We would make a ring with the bottles and the chicks were inside the ring of bottles. They seemed perfectly happy and content, and she had very few chick losses. Bottles were changed out 2x a day.

This was in Tennessee, where it was naturally warm anyway. I don't think this would cut it in the cold North.

If a particularly cold front of weather came through, they might get a 100w light for a day or so, and then that was it. But that was very rare. Back to the bottles. She was FAR too thrifty to waste electricity on chickens!

It was cheaper to boil the water on the gas stove. Or sometimes she would just build a fire in the pot belly stove down in the basement and set the brooder boxes near the stove. The firewood was free since we lived way out in the sticks.

I really love looking at everyone's beautiful, fancy brooder boxes and Eco-Glow contraptions, but I still smile to think back on the "old days" with grandma raising chicks. My own chicks are enjoying a 250W red light right now, and I kind of laugh to think that grandma would chastise me for wasting all that money on chickens. LOL. Some time before they are grown, I just want to fill up some canning jars with hot water, wrap them in towels, and go put them in my brooder. Just for old time sake!

When you do this, please post pics!!! I would love to see that! My Great Grandma had chickens but stopped keeping them before I was born and just got her eggs & meat from her farmer cousin across the road. His name was Orville. He let me ride his cow Bessie a few times. That was interesting...

I always loved playing in her chicken coop even though it became a storage shed for her and a secret hide out for me. My very favorite childhood photo is one I call my "Little house on the Prairie" picture. I'm maybe two years old and captured in mid-turn with the "Up-Norf" summer wind stirring my long blonde hair and the green grass next to that old weathered empty coop... She'd be proud of me in this first time chicken adventure.. I've done so much homework before jumping in. I just can't wait to sit in the same summer wind and watch my birds play with a good cup of coffee in my hand and her memory at my side.