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

[ChickNanny13]

You sure you had 41 and not 40? The lady I raise hatched chicks for swore she had 40 Serama/Silkie chicks for me to babysit, said she counted as she put them in the carrier. When she got here we counted placing them in my brooder, 39.....We counted again back into the carrier 39but when counting back into the brooder, 39....When I clean I count but have had to recount couple of times

Blooie & junebuggena gave good advice; check feed bags, between the MHP layers & if there was a loose one, it would be chirping it's head off.

Think maybe a miss count at the beginning?

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Ok. I'm almost done with my ginormous brooder! Lol. I want to use a MHP and I'll likely divide their 6' space until they're in ugly teenager phase. My questions about MHP are:

1. What kind of material do I use to make a frame? My hardware cloth seems a bit too flimsy.

2. I have a sunbeam hp in my Amazon cart that is a king size, doesn't have an auto shut off and seems like the right thing, but I've seen other posts here where there's a digital number setting versus Low/Med/High.

Should I pick one with a more specific heat setting?

I'm late in responding, but since you seem to be wanting a big brooder, thought I'd share mine. I built four this year (and have a fifth that I use as an isolation/hospital ward for adult chickens). The frame is 2x2s, and I drilled holes so that each side bolts together with carriage bolts, and then comes back apart. There's a top on it as well with hardware cloth (the building they are in has on and off rat issues, so not taking chances). They are up on sturdy folding tables, much better than being on the floor. Here are some photos:





Here's the first one I did, set up for two set of chicks 1 week apart that I wanted to temporarily keep separate (I also have the divider in for the first week to keep them close to the MHP, water, and food). The divider is window screen sandwiched between 1x2s on a frame.


And here are some 4 week old babies in their brooder, all crammed into the same sunny spot by the window. (This room has tons of natural light.)


(I need big brooders because their outdoor housing isn't ready yet, and also I have horrendous hawk issues.)

- Ant Farm

Edit to add: I since added boards along the bottom up to about 3-4" to keep all the bedding from being kicked through.

 

[aart]

Edit to add: I since added boards along the bottom up to about 3-4" to keep all the bedding from being kicked through.

Similar to mine...tho I don't use it much anymore brooding in the coop after 1 week...had the same problems with bedding kicked out.
Elevated and side doors are the bomb!
Bartered the framework built by someone else, I added doors and mesh...in process here:

 

[10AcreChick]

Um, i assume you checked between the layers of the heating pad and frame - she may have gotten stuck somewhere in the assembly itself. I've never had it happen but a few others have......

Yup, checked that. I was actually taking the heating pad off the crappy frame I had and moving it to the dome cave I made for the outside brooder (it wouldn't fit in the dog crate cause of how long the legs were to keep it in the tilted dome shape), so there is no way I could miss a chick while doing that!

You sure you had 41 and not 40? The lady I raise hatched chicks for swore she had 40 Serama/Silkie chicks for me to babysit, said she counted as she put them in the carrier. When she got here we counted placing them in my brooder, 39.....We counted again back into the carrier 39but when counting back into the brooder, 39....When I clean I count but have had to recount couple of times

Blooie & junebuggena gave good advice; check feed bags, between the MHP layers & if there was a loose one, it would be chirping it's head off.

Think maybe a miss count at the beginning?

I'm starting to think I DID miscount in the first place, since I have not found a chick in the house and I counted AGAIN last night and came up one short on the EE. That just goes to show you how important it is to know how many you start with after a big hatch! Saves your psyche!

Kind of surprising to me how well the almost-5-week-olds are getting along with the only-a-few-days-old chicks. They must seem like dinosaurs to those little guys! But I have two separate MHPs and plenty of water and food available, AND the big ones can get outside (ledge too high for the little guys, which is fine by me cause I'm worried about them falling off the side of the ramp outside). Wish I could let the big ones mix with the flock, but I'm just not sure about my cats...anyone want a cat? LOL

 

[aart]

I vote for 41 being the miscount.
Cannot imagine trying to count that many chicks.....I'd have to get 4 buckets and sort them by tens.

 

[Nathan J]

I vote for 41 being the miscount.
Cannot imagine trying to count that many chicks.....I'd have to get 4 buckets and sort them by tens.

LOL, yep, I have a hard enough time counting my 16. Only the fact that 6 of them (Golden Comets) are distinctly different from the other ten (5 Australorps, 5 Barred Rocks) makes it feasible. They just scoot around too fast most of the time!

 

[10AcreChick]

Quote: LOL, I used a bucket to count them last night. They kept trying to pile up and escape! And then the 4 wk olds were trying to jump in the bucket! Chaos!

 

[ChickNanny13]

Yup alot easier 'managing' less than more but they're so CUTE!

 

[aart]

Quote: LOL, I used a bucket to count them last night. They kept trying to pile up and escape! And then the 4 wk olds were trying to jump in the bucket! Chaos!

Yes, after a week or two a 5 gal bucket isn't deep enough...I resorted to this:

 

[smallmonster]

My chicks are here! Eight of 'em.

They're in the brooder with the MHP - will post pics once I can.

I put them all under the MHP to start, and one immediately took a nap. The others I introduced to water and food, and they're running around like crazy. The napping buff orpington I finally brought out to introduce to food/water, and she ate and drank and played for a minute and has now retreated to the MHP.

According to Agway, I've got two buff orpington, two RIR, two barred rock, and two speckled sussex.