How do you heat the laying boxes?

[Cluckies]

Did you need to put anything under the heating mat like a reflective blanket so the heat goes up instead of down or all over?

 

[RonP]

Heat generally rises naturally.

I didn't put anything under the mats.

The boxes are constructed with 5/8 inch plywood.

If it ever gets cold, I'll take temps on the bottom of the boxes to determine if there is any substantial heat loss, and make your suggested modification.

I'll keep you posted

 

[blucoondawg]

Your pad idea gives me an idea for my nest boxes, I used Opa's thread on here to construct roll away nests but I modified mine so the eggs roll out the front and I will have a box built over the area where the eggs are stored, I am going to build a platform under the egg collection area which will accept one of these heat pads, then I will either drill holes or cut slots in the floor of the collection area, which is simply an extension of the slanted floor of the nest box. I will insulate the sides of the collection area with a thin foam and hang a slotted rubber curtain over the area where the eggs roll through, this should cause the heat to rise up into the collection area and do well to keep the eggs from freezing but not effect the actual nest box area. This should be a quite simple modification.

 

[RonP]

Sounds great!

Keep us posted.

Pictures please

 

[Cluckies]

@RonP Do you have any straw or wood shavings on top of your heat mat? I bought one the other day, it came, I put it in. Due to the wood shavings, the "ambient temp" around the mat kept rising, therefore the mat rose as well. Pretty soon due to the rise in temp of the wood chips the mat was at 106 degrees. I pulled it out. I"m curious if yours rose with material over it?

Well, I ended up hanging it against the wall of the coop right behind the roosts for now, just to see what it would do. So today it was -14 outside ambient, and 0 in the coop. don't know if the mat affected the temp or not, maybe just took the edge off. but the girls were all facing the wall when I checked on them this morning (usually half and half), so they must be able to feel some heat from it, even though I can't feel much of anything.

But, 2 frozen eggs day before yesterday. 2 eggs that weren't frozen yesterday. So oh well, what can you do?

I was thinking maybe those "hot seat" pillows might work under some shavings? or would they tear those to shreds?

 

[blucoondawg]

@RonP Do you have any straw or wood shavings on top of your heat mat? I bought one the other day, it came, I put it in. Due to the wood shavings, the "ambient temp" around the mat kept rising, therefore the mat rose as well. Pretty soon due to the rise in temp of the wood chips the mat was at 106 degrees. I pulled it out. I"m curious if yours rose with material over it?

Well, I ended up hanging it against the wall of the coop right behind the roosts for now, just to see what it would do. So today it was -14 outside ambient, and 0 in the coop. don't know if the mat affected the temp or not, maybe just took the edge off. but the girls were all facing the wall when I checked on them this morning (usually half and half), so they must be able to feel some heat from it, even though I can't feel much of anything.

But, 2 frozen eggs day before yesterday. 2 eggs that weren't frozen yesterday. So oh well, what can you do?

I was thinking maybe those "hot seat" pillows might work under some shavings? or would they tear those to shreds?

I would think that unless you have a very small coop the heat produced from these pads would do little to effect the heat of the entire coop. I thought the bedding would be problematic as well as I think it will insulate the pad and keep the heat under the bedding , however some should still seep through, one idea I have if I were to actually use the pad in the nest box itself is rather than using any sort of bedding to use the plastic nesting pads that are used in the roll away nests, these pads have holes in the bottom and would allow the heat to easily pass through, also the pad would provide good footing for the hens, wood chips on a plastic pad would be slippery it may not hurt the hens but it cause them to slip around and break eggs in the nest box.

 

[RonP]

Wow!

Do you have the same 17 Watt mat I'm using?

What was the ambient temperature outside the box?

How did you measure the temps??

I never used wood shavings, but I can't imagine it makes that big a difference.

My daytime temps are in the twenties, eggs are still in the forties at 8pm.

 

[Cluckies]

Do you have the same 17 Watt mat I'm using? I'm not sure of the wattage, I just figured they were all the same.

What was the ambient temperature outside the box? it was less than 10 degrees

How did you measure the temps?? point and shoot thermometer, since then i've learned it reads 10 degrees warmer than the actual temperature.

 

[RonP]

Do you have the same 17 Watt mat I'm using? I'm not sure of the wattage, I just figured they were all the same.

What was the ambient temperature outside the box? it was less than 10 degrees

How did you measure the temps?? point and shoot thermometer, since then i've learned it reads 10 degrees warmer than the actual temperature.

OK, ambient temps were 10 degrees, wood shavings were 106.

If ambient temps were 60, wood chips would be around 156 and rising....seedlings would be cooking, not germinating.

Assuming your mat does not use over 45 watts from specifications, your mat could be faulty.

Take your mat indoors and plug it in.

Does it gets warm to the touch, or VERY hot?

If VERY hot, return it or toss it!

Now about your point and shoot IR thermometer, ...

Most inexpensive IR thermometers are designed to work at ambient temperatures above 32F....

Example, if you are in your home, say temperatures are 70F, and you point and shoot your pot of boiling water, temps will read about 212F.

Open your freezer and point and shoot, temps should read around 0F.

Stick your thermometer in the freezer for an hour or so, point and shoot, unless you have an expensive self calibrating unit, you'll get an ERR message.

Conclusion:

Simple question.

Was your thermometer 10F when you took the nest box temperatures?

If not, your readings will vary wildly and all measurements will be useless.

If it was, you have issues with the mat.

Hope this helps.

 

[RonP]

@RonP Due to the wood shavings, the "ambient temp" around the mat kept rising, therefore the mat rose as well. Pretty soon due to the rise in temp of the wood chips the mat was at 106 degrees. I pulled it out. I"m curious if yours rose with material over it?

Well, I ended up hanging it against the wall of the coop right behind the roosts for now, just to see what it would do. So today it was -14 outside ambient, and 0 in the coop. don't know if the mat affected the temp or not, maybe just took the edge off. but the girls were all facing the wall when I checked on them this morning (usually half and half), so they must be able to feel some heat from it, even though I can't feel much of anything.

Another comment after rereading your original post about the wood shavings.

Without an additional energy source, the surface temperature of the wood chips should be cooler than the surface of the mat, as there is so much more surface area with the chips to disperse the heat.

You also stated that you can't feel much heat coming from the mat on the wall.

This I would expect. Did you feel the nesting boxes for heat, or just read temperatures?