Mama Heating Pad in the Brooder (Picture Heavy) - UPDATE

[MissouriCowgirl]

Heres the pics of my babies lovin thier heat pad
You can really tell which is the older one
Shes coming along nicely

 

[Blooie]

So cute! They do spend a lot of time on top surveying their domain, don't they?

 

[lazy gardener]

My little flock is still inside. Hatched on Sat and Sunday. There are a couple who were very small, and a couple who may end up being culled. It was a rough hatch, dry, poor hatch %. I had to assist some of them, and 1 has some toe issues, several not moving well. It's a wait and see. So, while most of them are doing well with HP broody, there are a couple who are not the sharpest knives in the drawer. While I'd like to move them out sooner rather than later (chicks in the house is NOT GOOD for my asthma), I'm certain that it would be a death sentence for the "not so bright and agile" ones. My friend will come to get some tomorrow, and I'm hoping that his wife will take pity on the runts and take them as well! Next batch scheduled to go in bator as soon as temp is regulated. I'm doing a smaller batch this time. It seems that the more eggs I try to hatch, the poorer my hatch rate is.

Any how, that was WAY off topic! I'm loving the HP brooder, and to who ever suggested the shelving, thank you so very much. I have a bunch of Closet Maid shelving taking up space in the shop. My plan is to lay the HP over the shelving, use the 90* angle at the back, cut some angled wood sides. I can then pull the edge of the HP through the slats at the ends of the shelving, at least on one side. I do have some plastic coated fencing that would also work, but the idea of the CM shelving seems like it would be a great way to use it.

BTW Blooie, Thank you from the bottom of my heart for starting this thread. IMO, this is the heart of BYC: taking the old concept (brooding usually done under a heat lamp) and tweaking it to mimic the concept that God designed: Baby chicks are programmed to look for warm dark spots under a heat source!

 

[LindaB220]

I just started using this idea. I couldn't get a heat Lamp and until I can get outside coop done they are in my old rabbit cage inside. Don't have the space I would love for this idea but it's working and they seem much happier. I had to just lay mine on the bottom of cage wrapped in a towel but they seem to love it

will take pics and post from computer. Can't get the BYC app to let me upload

I saw this very same thing on youtube yesterday. Whatever works, right?

 

[shorttimer]

This thread should be a Sticky!

 

[Guernica]

This thread should be a Sticky!

Seconded. It absolutely should! It *really* saved my first chick-raising endeavor!

 

[Beekissed]

Blooie, here' the vid you are referring to in your first post on this thread...this is a vid I posted when I was doing my natural nest incubation thread and was going to brood using the same heating pad I was incubating with. By the time I found this vid I had already had the idea to brood chicks in this way, so this vid helped in giving me reassurances that it would work as well as I had thought it would. And it did!

 

[Blooie]

Yep! That's the one! Patrice Lopatin recorded it and I posted a link to it early on in this thread but didn't have the good sense to post the actual video! DUH, Diane! So glad you did, and that your natural incubation thread gave me the nudge to try brooding chicks this way. Despite last night's power outage, I'm totally convinced that this is the way to go. Thank you, my friend!

 

[Beekissed]

How did it all go without the power?

 

[Blooie]

It was scary! We had extremely high winds all night - gusting into the 60mph range. It was so bad that the wall of the trailer where our bed sits kept knocking into the headboard! Ken and I went to bed about 11 (yep, this is Wyoming so we can sleep through it) and about 4 am he woke me up, saying simply, "The chicks!" The power coming back on is what woke him. We threw on our jeans and jackets, grabbed some ballast (okay, not really on that part) and ran out there. I don't know how long the power had been off. The straw/towel combination had held just enough residual warmth - not heat - to keep the chicks going. We got the pad turned back on, made sure the chicks were all accounted for, and also made sure we reset the auto off to off. Thank goodness that Sunbeam Insta-heat does what it says. In seconds the pad was warming. After that there wasn't much else we could do.

Went back to bed. After we woke up we waited for Jenny to drop Kendra off, had a cup of coffee, and then we went back out there in the snow and wind. We were happy to see 8 Tinys chowing down at the food dish. They are still doing fine, none the worse for wear. But praise the Good Lord that the straw on top held at least a little heat in the cave as long as it did. I think that made all the difference.