Stupid Heat lamp question

DocM, you obviously did not even read my posts if you think thats what I said. The original answers I gave were aimed at the lady in TN who asked the original question. TN has very similiar temps to here. Maybe you should go back and actually *read* what I said.

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Emily Dixon
Ozark Jewels
Nubians & Lamanchas
www.ozarkjewels.net

"Remember, no man is a failure, who has friends" -Clarence

Oh OK DocM.. I must had been typeing out my question when you posted and didn't see the answer..

Thanks for your help also.

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Love all animals don't abuse them. I hope if caught abusing & animal I want to be first in line to kick your butt. I despise mean people & liars.

And maybe you didn't read my answers either, too sure that your answers are always the foremost correct ones, eh? Astute as you are, other people do know a few things about goats here. Like you, I have kidded a LOT of goats. Haven't burnt one up yet.

I'm done talking, Doc.

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Emily Dixon
Ozark Jewels
Nubians & Lamanchas
www.ozarkjewels.net

"Remember, no man is a failure, who has friends" -Clarence

TennesseeMama23, I just wanted to apologize for your thread becoming a battleground.

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Emily Dixon
Ozark Jewels
Nubians & Lamanchas
www.ozarkjewels.net

"Remember, no man is a failure, who has friends" -Clarence

just my two cents here. i'm in michigan and it is very cold , -20 last night with wind chill in the lower thirties.
i don't use heat lamps because of the fire hazardous and foremost to keep my animals healthy and strong. i had kids born in january and they have little coats on. somebody might think i'm just not smart enough
btw to hang a lamp so it can't burn. well, my goats have a dry place out of the wind, plenty of hay, warm water three times a day and they are healthy. i don't see any shivering.
if i would have a sick animal i probably will find a way to hang a lamp but until then it is not needed.
btw i heard of many barn fires, mostly people that thought they were smart.

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Susanne Stuetzler
Ain-ash-shams
Nubian Dairy Goats

please visit us at
http://www.ain-ash-shams.net

this is plain wrong. what you are talking about is fire that started from to much moisture in the hay.
never heard about a fire that started from deep bedding.

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Susanne Stuetzler
Ain-ash-shams
Nubian Dairy Goats

please visit us at
http://www.ain-ash-shams.net

If you’re going to try using a heat lamp whether it’s for piece of mind, or simply necessary, please use common sense. I use heat lamps depending on the age of my kids and the ambient temperatures during kidding and for the next two days. After that all lights are off. I use one 250watt lamp suspended from the barn rafters. The light is approx. five feet from the bedding. The wiring is so secure a gorilla could climb the cord and swing from the light assembly. The kids don't normally sleep directly under the light and for all I know the pen temperature may only rise a few degrees. Hanging a heat lamp during cold Tennessee nights gives me a better night's sleep and the red glow in the pen gives the dam a clear view of her newborn kids. The common sense end of this is the most important factor on the table. Just remember to hang it high and gorilla strong...

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TOPSIDE FARMS

That's ok

It is at least interesting, most of my threads die a tragic premature death.

Thanks, that is my new plan depending on the weather.

Hi..I use heat lamps when I really need to. Like John and Doc..I try really hard to keep them a proper distance and those cords aren't budging. They're on a couple three days in the really cold weather.

I actually had a fire..farrowing barn..burnt to the ground with my lovely girls and their babies all lost. It was a new building..and we had just bought new heat lamps for it. After the fire..the fire inspector told us that the cords on the heat lamps were defective and after they had been on for a while...they went up like roman candles. So its not always the usual things that can cause a fire. Just try to use caution and good common sense when you use them. And if something makes you stop and wonder..then listen to that little voice and change things.

Good luck to you...hey...spring is right around the corner..lol!

If you use brooder lamps, with cords rated to 250 watts and porceline fixtures, you won't have a problem with hot cords. Unless of course your barn isn't wired correctly, then I would be way more hesitant to use a high wattage vacuum pump on my milker than a 150 watt heat bulb.

No, I'm right. If you deep bed, as many goat owners do, you don't clean your pens out from fall to spring, adding more bedding to the top. I challenge anyone to go out into their barn and dig down a few inches and tell me their deep bedded stalls aren't many, many degrees warmer than the ambient temperature. You'll find that the bottom layer is indeed composting. (the composting process does require moisture) The energy released from the composting process is HEAT, as it is with most reactions. Middle school science. It happens all the time.

You put coats on your goats, yet you're belittling the fact someone else is bright enough to hang a simple light that a goat can't get to? If your goats are so healthy and strong, why do they need coats? I'd rather hang lights, my preference.

I don't "thought they were smart", I am smart. Having someone come in and make comments like this really don't help the conversation, do they? It's simply a difference of opinion. The pro light people don't care if the con light people don't use lights, that's fine, but don't lecture the use of the lights, most of us really are smart enough (and have kidded many goats) to hang a light properly. It's okay to use lights. Lights don't make a goat sick. They don't make them weak and unhealthy. Germs combined with cold temperatures do that.

Since we are into talking about heat lamps. Has anyone yet order the new ones from Premier1? I was going to but they are sold out until April I have read on their site they are suppose to be alot saver to use in barns. Now I got to find me another way to get heat lamps just incase when my one doe kids next month it will not be cold on her or the baby. Just don't know where to purchase one or 2 at.

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Love all animals don't abuse them. I hope if caught abusing & animal I want to be first in line to kick your butt. I despise mean people & liars.

Walmart, Tractor supply, Lowes, feed store should carry them...Look in the auto dept. @ Walmart for the light assembly and the lamps are in the light bulb section.

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TOPSIDE FARMS

you know the difference between really smart people and the one that say they are smart?

give me one case where a fire started because of deep bedding. if you are really so smart you sure can proof that.

my kids had coats on because they where newborns.

i have nothing against people that uses heat lamps. only don't like self proclaimed smart people.

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Susanne Stuetzler
Ain-ash-shams
Nubian Dairy Goats

please visit us at
http://www.ain-ash-shams.net

I also do not use heat lamps. It is 0* as I type & all my goats are acting like it is no big deal.

For those of you that do use lamps, I have a question. If you hang the lamp high enough where they can't reach it, which to me would mean that if they stood up on hind legs they would not be able to reach it, how is it doing any good? If they lay under it & it is hung up that high, I really doubt they are getting much heat from it. Not enough to really matter anyway. Have you ever laid under the lamp at that height to see if you can actually tell a difference in temps? If hung high enough, I doubt it would make a 5* diffrence if the outside temps are as cold as they are here.

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I can't believe I deleted it!

Uh, Doc, new building..ie new wiring..new lights/bulbs. Bought em by the case. They were indeed "good porcelain" ones. The investigator went back to the farm store..pulled the last of them of the shelves and also contacted the company that made them. Seems there was an upsy at the company level. Just one of those things..cost us dearly..but one of those things. I am assuming that what the wire cover said and what was actually within might have been two different things. The company acknowledged their product was defective.

Like I said..stuff just happens sometimes.

LOL Wendy..well yah..sorta. We have sort of an odd set up I guess. We use a pull together hog house. Alley in the middle and three pens down each side. The pens are square. In the left hand front corner of each pen are 1 by 4's nailed at an angle almost all the way down. This is to keep momma from access. The wee ones go to the corner to get under the light by going under the bottom board. Kind of a triangle tunnel if you will. And I am guessing the bulb itself hangs about 4 ft or a bit more off the bedding.

You can most definitely feel warmth..but not hot..hope I am saying that right. The wee ones always are drawn to it and they always curl up together under is. Like I say..its for sub zero.

Heck on Ground Hogs day..one of the Dexters calved. We had her locked in a pen in a three sided shed that has about a fifteen foot overhang off of it. She was back in the corner with three sides. We had a heat lamp on a gate for a bit down there..just trying to get the little heifer warmed up and dried off. It was -22 with wind chill that night. And believe it or not..if you got within three foot of it..it DID make a difference.

Anyway...for those of you who use them..just be careful.