1) If you have in-floor radiant heat, putting the chicks in a plastic tub directly over a floor pipe in a non-drafty place like a bathroom is fabulous. They are happy running around, no loud peeping. You can easily see them through the clear plastic and clean up is a breeze - just dump out the floor litter, hose out the tub, give it a good disinfecting and you are ready for the next hatch. No bother, no extra cost, no worrying when the power goes off because the floor will stay warm for hours and the placement of a folded towel on top of the bin will keep the heat in until the linemen get their job done - God bless them, love the linemen! Heating pads that go under the brooder have the same appeal and function.
2) This summer I tried the Rent-a-Coop heating plate which has easier legs to adjust than some of the similar products, and I hated it at first but now the utility of the plastic topper has made me a fan - no birds exploring the top of the heating plate means no angst in cleaning poo off an electrical device. Worth the investment, you will save in electric costs over the long run as the unit uses 15 watts instead of the 250 watts of a red heat bulb. I purchased mine directly from the manufacturer at this link, https://shoprentacoop.com/products/hp-1624-16x24-heater-plate. I make my legs shorter at the back end of the unit than at the front so the chicks can move around to their heat preference - no worries about them getting burnt the underside of the plate doesn’t get warm enough to cause them harm. It’s nice because you can easily adjust the legs from teenie tiny quail chicks to big old Brahma chicks in under thirty seconds.
3) Incandescent light bulbs. At an appropriate wattage for the area they work just fine in keeping the chicks warm - but they also collect dust which in an unfortunate situation can cause fires. And they have to be constantly on which means that the chicks never get a solid nights sleep in a dark space - and I am all about offering animals the most positive experience that can be reasonably accommodated while they are under my care. Nice thing about the bulbs is that you can adjust the heat by switching out to a lower wattage bulb as the chicks gain feathers, and they are relatively inexpensive to buy. I used my reject bulbs from when I switched over to LEDs. Just be careful that you don’t use an LED over chicks - the point to is offer them heat not light and LEDs don’t emit much heat.
4) Red heat bulbs. They are expensive and they are the cause of most coop fires, but at the end of the day they are a quick way to get a large area warm fast - important if you just got an delivery of a couple hundred chicks. I think the problem is that most folks may not realize that these large bulbs are really overkill for a brooder with half-a-dozen chicks in it - and may actually heat stress their chicks by using a big red bulb, normally in a silver bell hosing clipped above the brooder. If you are going to use one of these babies, see what you can do to put a safety net between it and the birds. A frame of hardware cloth or chicken wire can be a life saver should the unit break or fall, nothing worse that losing a favorite chick to an avoidable accident.
