Simulated Natural Nest Incubation~Experiment #1 So it begins....

[theawesomechick]

I would say to just put a nice, fleece comforter hobbit hole around or next to the heating pad set up, so that the chicks have something to keep warm in. I'm sure that their body temps would keep a fleece comforter plenty warm.

 

[fisherlady]

It's good to know I'm not a dinosaur yet...or that there are others still out there.

I have a down comforter that feels just like an electric blanket....wonder if that would work for chicks...hmmmmmmm......

I have heated bricks to slip under blankets before... that would work, but would get a little labor intensive after a few days!

 

[LindaB220]

There ya go, throwing money at a problem.....

Awww Bee,

Just trying to save your sanity worrying about the babies in a snow storm.

 

[Beekissed]

Hot water bottles work for awhile and wouldn't be so much work...they still sell those red, rubber, flat hot water "bottles"...and we have one.

 

[pogmobum]

Hot water bottles work for awhile and wouldn't be so much work...they still sell those red, rubber, flat hot water "bottles"...and we have one. 

I rescued my hatch after the power went out during a storm and i piled good old fashioned hot water bottles onto my incubator. Kept it at a good temp! Im 23 but always go back to the old reliables when its needed although i did need my mother to suggest the idea first when i couldn't for the life of me figure out how i would be able to produce heat with no electricity lol just born into a different age i suppose!!!!

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote: An old car battery wont work directly it is DC and the heating pad is AC.... You need a power converter to change it from DC to AC as well as the same wattage. Best to use an UPS.... Uninteruptable power supply, the ones made for computers are pretty inexpensive. OR find a way to defeat the circuit that keeps the power off to the heating pad. Its there for a reason though.

deb "who very much enjoys the thought of NEVER brooding in the house again"

 

[Beekissed]

I rescued my hatch after the power went out during a storm and i piled good old fashioned hot water bottles onto my incubator. Kept it at a good temp! Im 23 but always go back to the old reliables when its needed although i did need my mother to suggest the idea first when i couldn't for the life of me figure out how i would be able to produce heat with no electricity lol

just born into a different age i suppose!!!!

Yes!

But there is hope...you are learning! So many do not care to even learn....

An old car battery wont work directly it is DC and the heating pad is AC.... You need a power converter to change it from DC to AC as well as the same wattage. Best to use an UPS.... Uninteruptable power supply, the ones made for computers are pretty inexpensive. OR find a way to defeat the circuit that keeps the power off to the heating pad. Its there for a reason though.

deb "who very much enjoys the thought of NEVER brooding in the house again"

That's what I figured...complicated..and more money needed....urg. Not for me.

I haven't brooded in the house since 2008 and that was not for long at all. Don't know why I did it even then...just a brain fart moment, I guess.

I love, love, love the convenience of brooding right in the coop...all the feeding, watering and mess all in one place, plus the easy integration of the 2-3 wk old chicks into the big flock, not to mention the heat lamps being NOT in the house. Couldn't do it without the dog, though....any small pred for a mile around would be hearing those cheeps and come sneaking in to nab a chick.

 

[theawesomechick]

Hot water bottles work for awhile and wouldn't be so much work...they still sell those red, rubber, flat hot water "bottles"...and we have one.

Same here!

It leaks like crazy though.

 

[perchie.girl]

I know you want to be able to brood out on the ground but I just want to tell this story.

When Grandpa was raising chickens he and dad would brood with a Kerosine brooder. Not the antique kind you see on Ebay but just a kerosine lamp. they lived in Texas at the time raising either sheep or pigs or some combo... Grandpa was a sharecropper. Anyway they would take a sheet of corrugated tin and use it as the bottom of the brooder. Then framed up the sides.... put it on legs too. then they filled the brooder with Blow Sand. About four inches deep. For those who dont know Blow sand is very fine like Talcum powder.

Then they would put the lamp underneath the brooder. Dad said he knew he got the right temperature when the PeeChooks would spread out in rings flat out wings to the sides and sleep in the blow sand.. They brooded up hundreds at a time for resale. Days before CX I am sure.

deb

 

[Beekissed]

I know you want to be able to brood out on the ground but I just want to tell this story.

When Grandpa was raising chickens he and dad would brood with a Kerosine brooder. Not the antique kind you see on Ebay but just a kerosine lamp. they lived in Texas at the time raising either sheep or pigs or some combo... Grandpa was a sharecropper. Anyway they would take a sheet of corrugated tin and use it as the bottom of the brooder. Then framed up the sides.... put it on legs too. then they filled the brooder with Blow Sand. About four inches deep. For those who dont know Blow sand is very fine like Talcum powder.

Then they would put the lamp underneath the brooder. Dad said he knew he got the right temperature when the PeeChooks would spread out in rings flat out wings to the sides and sleep in the blow sand.. They brooded up hundreds at a time for resale. Days before CX I am sure.

deb

Wow! People would just freak OUT if they saw anyone doing that now, wouldn't they?

The last place I lived had an ancient, leaning old coop that had a stove pipe hole through the roof...and an old Fat Boy pot bellied stove that belonged in the coop~I can only guess it was used for when they were brooding chicks because I can't imagine they used it to heat the adult flock. Can you imagine having a wood burning stove in the coop nowadays?

And we are wary of heat lamps.....