Customer Reviews:
 Best Brooder Lamp Design, for temporary use. March 10, 2008
Frederick Dunn (Rural Pennsylvania)
Most people will think... what can you possibly write about a brooder lamp? Well, as this is a safety issue in many cases, some aspects are very important.
When one is in the market for brooding their hatchling chicks, or other baby critters, requireing auxiliary heat, these lamps are a good choice.
This particular lamp has all the necessary "extras"... For example, note that it has a white ceramic receiver for the bulb, this will allow the high wattage bulbs, the standard being 250 watts.
***Some brooder lamps of this kind will have a plastic (normally brown) receptacle for the bulb. These can NOT handle the 250 watt brooder bulbs and may overheat.
Note also, that this lamp has the wire retainer on the back, allowing it to be suspended by a hook and not by the electrical wire. This retainer wire is connected to the hood, not the receptacle.
Another absolute must, is the four prong guard on the face of the hood. Should your hood fail, and the lamp fall onto straw or hay (both of which I do not recommend for chicks), it will reduce the risk of fire from contact with the bulb.
There is a spring clamp attachment, which works nicely when clamping onto a normal 2x4 stud which is verticle. It is not sufficiently articulated, as to clamp on a box edge and focus heat straight down. ***A word of caution here. I do not recommend using a cardboard box as a brooder and having a lamp like this clamped on the side, smaller boxes easily tip over. Consider having the light clamped to a chair leg, or stool leg next to your box brooder instead.
Why should you get a lamp with a 250 watt capacity, when you are going to use a 60 or 75 watt bulb? Because, it's that much safer and the shroud directs heat down where you need it most.
***General note here, before you put living things beneath this lamp? Set it up with a thermometer beneath it, see what the temperatures are and make adjustments accordingly, then, when all is well.... bring in the chicks!
***Ok, so say you are putting in day old chicks and using a low wattage bulb. You'll have the lamp very near the floor/substrate right? Those little rascals are apt to perch "on" the wire shroud guard. So, my recommendation there is, to get a higher wattage bulb and place it out of young bird perching reach. Meaning, instead of a 40 watt, upgrade to a 65?
In closing, I'd like to add one comment regarding conservation, I see this frequently when people show me their brooder set ups... while complaining about electricity bills, we walk into the brooder area and I see several 250 watt brooder bulbs in an array, normally 3 feet or more off the floor. Reduce the wattage and lower the lamps. Avoid white light as it's a source of stress (try to sleep with a white light over your head), use red, or even blue lamps. Enough light so the birds can find food and water 24 hours a day, but not so much light that they go nuts and peck at each other from stress.
Can't find a lower wattage bulb in the proper color? I have a solution for that also... get a clear or white bulb in the optimum wattage... go to your craft store and purchase a bottle of Pebeo glass paint, or other non-toxic red or blue glass paint. These paints are heat cured. Paint your bulb and vwalla... a brooder bulb is created. I recommend that you have an extra bulb on standby. You don't want to see your light go out on Sunday evening, with three feet of snow outside and discover you only had one bulb!
Thank you for reading my review (">
|
