# Question on Heat Lamps?



## happybooker1 (Nov 5, 2012)

So before I got chickies I had 2 heat lamps for puppies already, but with white lights. So I got the red heat lamps as suggested for the chickies. 

One red lamp burned out within 2 days. The other bulb lasted about 5 days. My white lamps have lasted for over a year used intermittently but for weeks during the winter.

So do the red bulbs really burn out that quickly? They are 250 watt just like the white bulbs are.


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## Bird_slave (Oct 26, 2012)

Never had much luck with the red lamps myself. Like you experienced they burned out too quickly. At any rate, the last two years I haven't bothered with a heat bulb at all in the brooder; just 100 watt bulbs (within a reflector) and the chicks did just fine.


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## 7chicks (Jun 29, 2012)

I hate that those heat lamp bulbs shatter so easily. After a few times of that and I quit using them. Accident waiting to happen for me and the girls. Went to using those black out bulbs for when I needed the heat and not the light. They're 75 watts.


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## Roslyn (Jun 21, 2012)

The 250 watt red bulbs really aren't needed. The electric bill will knock you over!! I use a 75 watt bulb in the metal light with those two cross wires and then swap that for a 60 watt after they are about 4 weeks, then before they go to the big girl coop at 8 weeks I take that down to a 40 watt just for the light.


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## etc (Nov 15, 2012)

*Heat Lamps*

I didn't have any trouble with the red heat lamps. I started chicks last January, in freezing temperatures, out in the barn, so the heat lamps ran 24/7 for a couple of months. Hubby insisted I get the heavier duty heat lamp from the DIY store that was rated for the higher watt bulb, not the cheapy ones at the feed store. They are less prone to cause a fire! We now have 14 healthy birds. 7 hens have been laying for months now, 6 eggs a day and the other 7 "pullets" became roosters, LOL.


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## patlet (Oct 4, 2012)

We've always used red heat lamps here in the woods, except for the first year. Rooster got badly frostbit, lost all the spikes to his comb. I was told that the missing tips were the sign of a New England farm rooster. That rooster also got frozen wattles from drinking out of an open bowl of water. His wattles swelled up and forced his mouth to stay open. In less than 24hrs he had full blown pneumonia. Antibiotics, inside heat, and outside red heat lamps saved his life. He lived for eight years after that. Since then, we provide a heat lamp (be sure the socket is insulated for heat lamps) that the birds can use at will. Once on, they stay on for the winter. They last for months. No more frostbite. No more frozen wattles. No more pneumonia. I think the electric bill is worth it.


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