What about using the heating pad over a tunnel method? Would that work well enough that I don't need a heat lamp? Heat lamps scare the boogers outta me.
I would strongly recommend a heat lamp for at least the first few hours, no matter what else you want to use later.
When the chicks first arrive, they are cold and hungry and thirsty and in a new place.
The heat lamp provides light so they walk toward it.
It provides lots of heat, so they can warm up quickly.
And it lets them eat and drink while they are warming up.
With a brooder plate or a heating pad, the chicks need to learn to go inside. It does not provide as much heat at once, which is fine for chicks that are mostly warm but not for chicks that are very cold. And they have to choose between staying there to get warmer, or going to eat and drink.
If your chicks arrive in the morning, and you use a heat lamp for all of the first day, your chicks can get thoroughly warm and learn to eat and drink. During the day, you can also be watching to make sure there is no fire. Then in the evening, after the chicks are warm and have full crops, you could choose to tuck them under the brooder plate or heating pad and turn off the heat lamp. That would greatly reduce the chance of fire while you are sleeping, but the chicks should do much better just for having those few hours with the heat lamp.
For using a heat lamp on the first day with shipped chicks, I would have it closer to the chicks than most recommendations, so they have one area that is extra-warm. I aim for somewhere between 100 and 120 degrees directly under the center of the lamp, but I also make sure some other parts of the brooder are below 80 degrees so the chicks have a wide choice of temperatures. In the first few minutes, the chicks tend to crowd together right in that warmest area. Then some of them start to look more comfortable and explore, while others stay right under the heat for a bit longer. By the end of the day, they are usually ready to go to sleep in a circle around the heat lamp, maybe somewhere in the 90 to 100 degree part of the temperature band.
I have read posts from some people who raise shipped chicks with brooder plates and they do fine, and I have read posts from some other people who had chicks dying with brooder plates but the chicks did fine when heat lamps were added. I have also read posts from some people that experienced both: some batches of chicks needed the heat lamp while others were fine without it. Different weather during shipping can make a big difference to the chicks, and that may explain some of the differences.
When I have had shipped chicks, I have always used heat lamps in the first day, and I have only used heat lamps or broody hens after that. So I have no direct experience with brooder plates or with heating pad caves. But I have read quite a bit about them, paying attention to what good and bad experiences people post, and trying to understand why they get the different results.
