Australorps breed Thread

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bruceha2000 said:
Not sure why I would want to spend $73 for an "open all around" one temperature plate (and potentially another $29 for a cover so they don't stand and poop on it) when I can buy a heating pad of nearly equal size with 3 temperature settings for less than $18 and make a very adjustable shape cave with a leftover piece of wire fencing and an old pillowcase. Each chick can get as close or far from the pad as they like depending on their current need for heat unlike a rigid plate which is a single height - probably somewhat adjustable, but not likely to the 2" difference front to back of a MHP cave.

And the heating pad has uses when not brooding chicks, unlike the single purpose heat plate.
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It was just a suggestion. The plates will last for years and are a good investment. I predict that those using the pads will want to get a plate one day.

You are of course comparing a plate that can cover 60 chicks with the cost of a heating pad that will cover 15 though. The plate that covers 15 chicks will cost you $10.00 more than the pad and the pad will not last as long. It is called the economics of disposable things compared to durable goods.

You get what you put into things sometimes. I see a parallel between the heat pads and those that use a low quality incubator and then have bad hatches--then wonder why they have bad hatches.
 
How, precisely, will a 16x24 plate cover 60 chicks if a 12x24 pad can cover only 15? The former is 6.4 sq in per chick, the latter 19.2. By your calculation, a 12x24 pad could cover 45 chicks if attached to a flat rack. And those 60 chicks are going to be some kind of crowded by the time they are a week old.

Given how often the average BYCer will be brooding chicks, the "economics" don't favor expensive "single function" devices. It all depends on how often and how many. I'm pretty sure the 1,025 chicks my wife scanned at the P.O. Wednesday won't be under MHPs or small heat plates
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My guess is hover brooders though I don't know.
 
bruceha2000 said:
How curious. I've not had Wyandottes so I don't know what is "normal" for a 4 week old chick. This is one of the (presumed) BAs at 24 days. They were raised by a broody out in the barn. Temps ranging from 50F to maybe 75F. She slowly introduced them to their world outside the brooder in the coop. She is outside the barn with the rest of the chicks under the watchful eye of the hen. Are you using a heat lamp in the house? My understanding is they feather out faster if they are in a more natural environment with somewhere warm (hen, Mama Heating Pad cave or heated area) to go under when they are cold and much cooler temperatures to play in at other times. Even at 3 or 4 days old my June 2015 chicks spent WAY more time running around than under the hen except when they were sleeping at night. In contrast here are the BA chicks from my 2012 group about the same age in their first foray out of the house. We brought them back in after about 15 minutes. They were raised the "common" way with 95F the first week, 90F the second week, etc in the house in a bathtub. The second one is the broody that raised the 2015 chicks from Meyer.
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Yes just a regular heat lamp in the garage. That gold laced Wyandotte is fethering very nicely, the other ones are very slow to feather though I'm presuming it's because their Cockrells.
 

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