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

[lazy gardener]

I love the big "tumors" that show up on the right side of chick's chests. Obviously, your girls are eating well!!!

 

[KatharinetheGr8]

Wow. This is such a good idea, and I wish I would have seen it when I was putting my brooder together. I totally agree about the night/day cycle being less stressful for the chicks and heating lamps scare me, too. Anything that gets close to the natural way a mother been would raise her chicks sounds great to me. Thanks for sharing and I intend to use this the next time I brood chickens .

 

[azygous]

The chicks moved out to the run yesterday, and spent their first night "on the ground" without incident. No dead or squashed or sick chicks this time. Whew!

I solved the problem of where to house them by moving Flo my 100% now crippled hen over against the wall since she doesn't need the entire pen now that she can't walk. I ran a line of deer netting to keep the babies on the other side of the enclosure for their safety. I believe Flo is entertained by their antics, but she probably would peck them if they came into range of her trigger-happy beak.

They didn't use their cave until dark when it cooled down from being in the 80s all day. The chicks didn't quite know what to do so I put them inside their cave, and they instantly popped back out a couple times before they recognized the warm comfort inside as where they've been for the last two days.

The big chickens are all lined up along the fence at times to view the newcomers. The juveniles are especially curious, never having seen babies since they were ones themselves just four months ago.

You know, just having them in the house for only two days, I could hardly wait to get rid of the noise, the poop, MI-GAWD-THE-POOP! These three poop more than the last bunch, I swear!

So, in a few weeks, they'll be ready to begin mingling with the flock, and there are two portals that open into the run from this pen, so it's going to work well. But when it comes time to move into the coop, these three will need to learn to cope with bunking with adult chickens since the coop off the grow-out pen is occupied by the last bunch, and there's no room for three more in there. THAT is going to be a huge challenge!

 

[azygous]

Tell me if I'm going overboard following the rules, Blooie!

Six days old, left to right: Taffy, Snickers, and Peppermint. They decided my arms are great perches. They can get up there all by themselves.

The little smarties learned how to climb on me in just two days time.

You can't do stuff like this with a Sterilite brooder with a heat lamp. I think my chicks have way more fun than brooder chicks.

So do I. They aren't little and fun and cute for very long and I'm soaking up as much of them as I can.

Oh, I only got pooped on twice so far.

 

[bruceha2000]

Not to worry azygous, Blooie is nothing if not direct

Never have to guess if she is peeved (and based on her stories, at times she can be pretty inventive with letting someone know).

My chicks from Meyer spent a day in Cleveland as well. Checked the USPS tracking info, it showed them scanned at the local PO in OH the day they hatched and scanned into Cleveland a couple of hours later. The next morning when they SHOULD have been scanned in and out of Nashua, NH by 3 AM and SHOULD have been arriving at my local PO (I got up at 4:30 AM) STILL showed last scan as getting to Cleveland.

Like you, the only harm was to MY nerves. Glad your little ones are safe and healthy. You are right, they don't stay cute and little all that long. At about 8 weeks (1 week ago) it was really hard to look at them and not think "small chickens, maybe bantams) other than their tails not being fully grown out. They are now almost as big as my Cubalayas (except for their LONG tails). They do still "cheep" rather than make adult chicken noises though.

 

[lazy gardener]

I love it when they start going through puberty, and sown like the horn on a clown car.

 

[SunshineAnShade]

Not to worry azygous, Blooie is nothing if not direct   Never have to guess if she is peeved (and based on her stories, at times she can be pretty inventive with letting someone know). 

My chicks from Meyer spent a day in Cleveland as well. Checked the USPS tracking info, it showed them scanned at the local PO in OH the day they hatched and scanned into Cleveland a couple of hours later. The next morning when they SHOULD have been scanned in and out of Nashua, NH by 3 AM and SHOULD have been arriving at my local PO (I got up at 4:30 AM) STILL showed last scan as getting to Cleveland. 

Like you, the only harm was to MY nerves. Glad your little ones are safe and healthy. You are right, they don't stay cute and little all that long. At about 8 weeks (1 week ago) it was really hard to look at them and not think "small chickens, maybe bantams) other than their tails not being fully grown out. They are now almost as big as my Cubalayas (except for their LONG tails). They do still "cheep" rather than make adult chicken noises though.

Pretty much had the same experience. Thats right! My peeps finally arrived this morning!!!! They were shipped out on Monday and Usps tracker made me think id be receiving then on Tuesday. It said they left clevland on monday night so I waited all day Tuesday and finally called my local post office to make sure they knew to expect a live shipment. The person assumed my dh had called about the same thing but he never did. Someone else had ordered from mpc at the same time! Lol so any way my heart was hurting when they did nt come that day.

They called at 7:30am. I want able to get them until 8:30am and when i asked what time they arrived she said 4:30am. They didn't want to wake me so early. Usps never updated either until 2pm today!

I'm so happy they are finally here now though! I can stop dreaming that my chicks arrived as unborn eggs!! Lol
every body arrived alive thankfully. Got them watered fed and showed them the MHP.
They were so noisy until they went under it, then not a peep!

I set up a baby monitor and watched as they started exploring and zipping all over the coop! This evening before dark i checked on them again and it had seemed like they forgot where the heat pad was and were in a huddle. I had to u sheer them back under. And so far that's where they've stayed for the night!


My only concern is my little yellow BO chick (i think) After researching, it sounds like she has crook neck also known as wry neck.
Has anyone had any experience with this? I read it's usually a vitamin E deficiency.
I picked up some vitamin E and selenium as well as poly-vi-sol. Ive given her 3 drops of the poly and 400iu of E with 25microunits of selenium.

Any suggestions?

And of course pics!

[VIDEO][/VIDEO]
[VIDEO][/VIDEO]

I know its hard tosee the yellow o nes neck in these pics. I will try again in the am. Thank everyone! I love them so much!
Edited to remove duplicate pic

 

[Blooie]

I read somewhere that a thread with good people sharing ideas, mistakes, and experiences takes on a life of its own and continues even long after the OP has moved on. (NO, I'm not going anywhere!) I've noticed that about this thread and I thank you all so much for your enthusiasm, participation, and all of the photos. I haven't been on much lately. Summer is my extremely busy time. I quite literally have an overnight bag which remains packed at all times, my cosmetics are always kept in the small travel bag, and we don't put our suitcases away. They stay out at the foot of the bed. That's how much traveling we do this time of year. So far we have been gone 16 days of June, 18 days of July, and August is young - only gone 6 days so far but we have 4 more days away scheduled. <sigh> September it gets better. We have 9 days in September we'll be gone. Whew! But I've been reading even though it's not always easy to post. I tend to be a bit, um, wordy with responses and hate doing that on my phone or iPad.

@SunshineAnShade I don't know anything about wry neck in chicks. I do, however, know adorable pictures when I see them and yours sure qualify!

@azygous Every time I see you with chicks like ticks, I giggle! If I do chicks next year, I'm absolutely stealing your portal idea and I can't wait to add it to my set up. I'm like you - I find the chicks raised with plenty of cool air, natural night and day cycles, exposure to older chickens, and lots of space are an absolute joy to raise.

@bruceha2000 ME? Direct? Nah, I'm subtle. But I'm an equal opportunity point-maker.....I find a way somehow!

You are all wonderful. So glad to have you aboard, supporting Mama Heating Pad, raising strong healthy chicks as naturally as possible, and sharing humor and disappointments. This thread started out all about a better way to brood.....it's turned into quite a warm little community and I thank you all!

 

[bruceha2000]

Yeah, hanging a doctor in effigy is SO subtle

Love you Blooie, always a highlight when you post.

 

[Blooie]

Yeah, hanging a doctor in effigy is SO subtle

Love you Blooie, always a highlight when you post.

Hey, he had that coming!!

Love you too, Bruce!