[nicchick]

Hi, just a quick question about heat lamps if anyone can help that would be great!
My two bald girls are in my garage/workroom with a halogen heater on following the advice from the lady at little hen rescue. It throws out a lot of light even on the lowest setting, what do I do at night time? I don't have any other way of heating the space(it's quite big) and they are in a divide rabbit cage as there was fighting before. I've covered the whole cage with a light fabric but they are still scratching and scoffing. Nic

[peanut]

we have hens at school and during the winter months we have a brooder lamp set up inside the house.

It does give off a red glow (which has led to some suggestions from colleagues that they're touting for business) but we have it set on a timer.

Ours warms the house from 6 - 9pm, goes off and comes back on at 4 am until 6.  This seems to be doing the trick.  They get plenty of darkness hours, but some gentle warmth to go with it.

We did this as we lost a couple of our ex-batts in the coldest parts of December - they're not used to the cold - and two had become Hinnies, which has got to be a bit of a drain on the old body at the wrong time of year.

[Foxy]

Hi, just a quick question about heat lamps if anyone can help that would be great!
My two bald girls are in my garage/workroom with a halogen heater on following the advice from the lady at little hen rescue. It throws out a lot of light even on the lowest setting, what do I do at night time? I don't have any other way of heating the space(it's quite big) and they are in a divide rabbit cage as there was fighting before. I've covered the whole cage with a light fabric but they are still scratching and scoffing. Nic

try a dull emitter(sp) bulb -gives off heat but no light

http://www.solwayfeeders.com/ProductsDetail1.asp?STOCK_CODE=1109

[matthew2riches]

Nic.

I have various heating stuff from when I was let loose with the Ascott catalogue :-)

Give me a shout if you want to borrow an infra red or a dull emitter.

You can come and grab it from us or we can drop it off and see your plot while we're there.

[nicchick]

Thanks everyone! It's really tricky getting answers to questions like this, the smallest of these birds is the size of a pheasant and was so bad yesterday morning that I'm sure that if I had taken her to the vet they would have wanted to put her down.

Matthew, Leanne has one of those lamps. Unfortunately she was doing her double shift and I keep missing her to get it. If I still can't get it I would like to take you up on your offer, thank you. You're welcome to come and see the plot and the hens any time.
I think I might just go and turn it off for a bit this morning and chuck a quilt over the back and front of the cage. I'll be working down there later anyway. Nic.

[nicchick]

Just checked them and they are sitting down and look really well! They are both such nice hens, one is really jumpy and the other (when not dying) is really feisty and brave.