Phew! That was close.

Too close.

Went in last night to check the birds and thought that's funny, it smells like smoke in here.  I took a look around, got distracted by the whirly bird in the 100kmph wind gusts and thought it must be because of the speed that's turning.

Nope!

Start walking to get the duck's bucket, notice one of the heat lamps is down.  Not only down, but broken, and there's a river of burned bedding.  So lucky, we are so lucky.

The muscovies will buck up or be put up in the freezer.

Yikes!

yes thank goodness you caught that in time sweetened!  very scary that combo of straw and heat lamp and birds flying around in a coop..my neighbours just lost their entire coop and and all 35 chickens in a fire.  you can never be too careful with wiring up those heatlamps.
I have switched to heated water buckets and just a 150 watt lightbulb wired up high but I am always nervous when brooding chicks as I know fire is always a risk there.

I know, I'm incredibly lucky. After reading about coop losses here and on other forums, I always hated the thought of heat lamps. I don't heat my animals, for multiple reasons. But we wanted these stupid ducks to last until spring so we could maybe get a couple eggs from them. Meat is just as good though, and if they are idiots enough to lay down with their feet behind them, then maybe I don't want them anyway!

There's a dude on facebook who calls himself The Chicken Whisperer. He posts every time there's a heat lamp related fire. There are a lot of them.

I purposely chose breeds that do well without heat.

I picked up a couple of the ecoglow brooders for this hatching season, too. Using a heat lamp last year made me so paranoid!

I have trouble understanding why you would ever need heat lamps for ducks but theni remember these are young ducks right?  and maybe muscovies need more heat.I have only ever had saxony ducks and they were mature by winter so have their full set of feathers.

I have 6 Rouens as well, who have NEVER had an issue. The muscovies I have dont tuck their feet, they lay with them out behind them or uncovered, so in the cold weather they freeze.

wow Sweetened, my heart is still thumping in my throat! I worry about the two heat lamps I have in my barn. They are pretty well fixed and hardly ever on these days but I have to have my spidey senses tuned to the barn always when they are on. Thank goodness you caught that.

Fire is one of my biggest fears. This post is upsetting. I am SO GLAD you followed your nose!

Muscovies aren't the same as the mallard derived ducks so they can feel the cold where a mallard (or Rouen or Runner or Campbell or any of the other breeds) won't.

Boy, lucky break!

Fowler wrote:Muscovies aren't the same as the mallard derived ducks so they can feel the cold where a mallard (or Rouen or Runner or Campbell or any of the other breeds) won't.

Boy, lucky break!

Clearly my Scovies don't know the process of getting warm, LOL.

Sweetened wrote:

Fowler wrote:Muscovies aren't the same as the mallard derived ducks so they can feel the cold where a mallard (or Rouen or Runner or Campbell or any of the other breeds) won't.

Boy, lucky break!

Clearly my Scovies don't know the process of getting warm, LOL.

On the contrary, sounds like they were in the process of building a fire.

 

Had that happen to me twice now. Walk out, odd smell of smoke early in the morning...two different styles of heat lamps, two different houses. One charred some framing on the wall, the other burnt a hole in the floor. Very lucky. I do things different with the lamps now when I use them.