Cameron Schuckert wrote:Not to move the lamp up and down but to turn on and off the lamp at 90 degrees. I purchased what I needed I think from farmtek, a thermostate which should be arriving today
I suspect that turning the lamp on and off will cause you many problems. It would take a pretty spectacular thermostat to keep the air to within a degree down where the birds are and it doesn't take much cold to kill a whole brooder of birds. Usually people will leave the heat lamp on 24 hrs a day and control the general heat by raising or lowering the lamp. When done this way you can gauge the temperature by looking at where the birds hang out. They should hang out in a ring under the light. Directly (centered) under the light should be too hot so that they have a range of temperatures they can move between. It would be impossible to perfectly control the temp so you create a temperature gradient across the brooder that allows the chick to regulate it's own temperature.
If the birds hang out in a pile directly under the lamp, then the lamp is too high (too low temp) and birds will certainly die in this dogpile.
If the birds stay away from the light, then it is too low and therefore too hot for them. If it is too hot they may move to a cooler area and make a dogpile there for warmth instead. Which again will result in suffocations at the bottom of the pile.
Ideally the little birds will form a ring, avoiding the too hot space directly under the lamp and the too cold space outside of the light. They will venture out into the cold when they want food or water and then they will return when they feel they need to.