A broody hen is one who wants to sit upon the eggs….in hopes of hatching them. In our little coop -we have, at times, taken advantage of this by placing fertilized eggs under the broody hen and allowing her to hatch and raise the chicks. This has proven enjoyable for us…and it satisfies the hen who wanted to do it.
For us humans, brooding over something usually refers to giving an item a great deal of thought….perhaps an excessive amount of thought and time prior to taking some action. On the surface, it can appear as procrastination. And sometimes you might be right. In this case, it is a combination of both.
Last fall, while on our three month long roadtrip, we passed through Havre, MT. I have other stories of Havre from other visits but will save them for now. This time, we were headed East towards Michigan and just passing through. Prior to reaching Havre I had done a little Craigslist reconnaissance and found a couple of old chicken coop brooder lights. Baby chicks, if not concealed under a broody hen, require additional heat to survive and grow. Many farmers will use a lamp or combination of lamps and heaters to achieve this. The chicks are not dumb…if they are warm, they’ll move away…if cold, they’ll huddle under it. Over the years many different sorts of brooder heaters have been devised. This particular find was a couple of hanging pendant style lamps. One was about 20″ diameter and had a conical section containing four lamp holders and a thermostat. The other was not as pretty…it was a larger diameter shallower dish with a single lampholder surrounded by a nichrome heating element under a piece of hardware cloth screen. I knew I could make something cool from these and promptly arranged to meetup and buy them on the way through town. The deal was struck and the lamps rode around in the trailer for 3 more months and then sat in our yard at home for another 7. A victim of my brooding over the ideas combined with some procrastination……probably a lot of procrastination.
Deciding how to repurpose the four lamp variant was simple. I replaced lampholders as needed, bypassed the thermostatic switch when rewiring with suitable vintage style cordage, thoroughly cleaned, and refinished the reflector side….then added four new 1920’s style coiled filament lamps and hung it with new chain. It is pretty. It has a cool industrial feel combined with what some refer to as a “shabby-chic” or farmhouse look. It will look great over a dining table in a cabin or country home. It is now for sale and can be found on my ebay page (“airspy”) as well as mentioned in my gallery album on my business’ Facebook page. (“Robert Haus Technical Services”)
I liked the design of it enough that I have since hunted up another similar model that has the same flying saucer look and four lampholders. It will either get redone in a similar way…..or it may instead become a neon adorned flying saucer sculpture befitting a 1950’s themed diner. I’m kinda liking the latter idea since I have been on a bit of a 40’s and 50’s sci-fi kick of late.
The other one was not so easy. It mostly came along for the ride as part of the deal and did not have the nifty lines of the first one. After some time “brooding over it”….I think I now have the answer.
It’s design has a protective screen…the heater…and the pan. Although not in the proper order of construction, it does remind me a bit of a triode vacuum tube. A triode tube consists of a heater, grid, and a plate all enclosed within the evacuated envelope. Some time ago, I had rendered the electronic symbol for a triode in neon tubing.
But I was unsatisfied with most options of what to mount it on for display. The neon tube elements have therefore languished in the shop awaiting a fitting way to mount and display them…..something better than a simple flat sheet of plastic or wood. (“anyone” can do that) Upon taking another look at the second brooder heater….its suggestiveness of vacuum tube relationship seems a good industrial backdrop for the neon triode. So I shall be mounting those elements upon this disused brooder heater, wiring and hanging up for display. It seems a good way to use the parts at hand and gain something that is greater than the sum of those parts. Hopefully my brooding over it will result in my being satisfied with the results.