Eglu with heat lamp as a brooder?

[Companihen]

I have a question, has anyone put a heat plate (We have the yellow mama hen one) into an eglu house?

I'm hoping to move my chicks from this hatch outside sooner this time round, and set up an outdoor brooder for them. My idea is to put the eglu on our patio with slabs under and slabs on the flaps on the run part too for protection. I have felt to cover the roof and one side of the run for wind protection too. And I was thinking of putting the chicks in this set up soon and have the mama hen heat plate inside the house part of the eglu. It is the purple eglu go up we have.
Does anyone have ideas or thoughts on how this would work?

Another possible idea is using a rabbit hatch instead of the eglu bur I'm not sure if the mama hen heat plate would fit in that.

In the uk Temps where I am are approx 14 in the day and 8 in the night. But it is nearly April and the temp ranges for the next few weeks could easily vary between 5 degrees c to 20 degrees c. Funny time of year for us

 

[StacyT]

When I moved the last batch of chicks out I put some Marans and Delaware’s into an eglu with a brooder plate. The only issue was getting the back shut with the cord. I moved them out when they were about 3 weeks old and temps ranged at the time from low 30’s to upper 50’s. This was last winter around November. In my case I just used the eglu as it was the best insulated. After they were bigger and didn’t need heat anymore I moved them to another coop so I could use it for the next batch coming in a few days. I plan to keep them for the 1st week maybe 2 inside than moving them out to the Eglu.

 

[NatJ]

[insert complaint about different temperature scales.]

In the uk Temps where I am are approx 14 in the day and 8 in the night. But it is nearly April and the temp ranges for the next few weeks could easily vary between 5 degrees c to 20 degrees c. Funny time of year for us

Conversion to Fahrenheit:
14 Celsius is about 57 Fahrenheit (that's the daytime number)
8 Celsius is about 46 Fahreneheit (that's the night number)

When I moved the last batch of chicks out I put some Marans and Delaware’s into an eglu with a brooder plate. The only issue was getting the back shut with the cord. I moved them out when they were about 3 weeks old and temps ranged at the time from low 30’s to upper 50’s. This was last winter around November. In my case I just used the eglu as it was the best insulated. After they were bigger and didn’t need heat anymore I moved them to another coop so I could use it for the next batch coming in a few days. I plan to keep them for the 1st week maybe 2 inside than moving them out to the Eglu.

Given that you are in California, I assume you are using Fahrenheit temperatures.
Conversion to Celsius:
30 F is about -1 C (just below the point where water freezes on either scale, and colder than what OP is expecting)
50 F is 10C (between the high and the low that OP is expecting)

So you were dealing with temperatures just a bit colder than the Original Poster of this thread is expecting, and your chicks were 3 weeks old at the time. Good information!

 

[Companihen]

Thanks for your responses.

To my shock and horror I've just taken my heat plate out to set it up in the box brooder I was going to use for the first few days and it is CRAWLING with what I assume to be red mites, they are grey ish though. The last time this heat plate was near a chicken was my last batch of chicks last June. I did not have mites then. It has been stored in a plastic storage container with all my chick feeders etc and my chicken medicines. No chickens can get in this cupboard.

I cannot believe it. I knew mite eggs lasted a long time and we had mites in the flock last autumn... but how has this brooder got so infected.... and I've only just seen them now ?!!

Puts me in rather a predicament now though