UPDATE: So a funny thing happened this weekend. I had been wondering when I needed to turn off the MHP. My chicks are a month old and I had the temp on 3 still. When I woke up Thursday morning, I had a circuit breaker trip. I flipped it back. It would last a day or so then trip again. I went through this a few times.
One Sunday, I finally decided it was time to change out the poopy towel I had draped over the MHP. When I removed the old one, I saw that the heating pad was off. I panicked and checked to make sure it was still plugged into the outdoor socket I was. Why wasn't it on? And how long had it been off? I then realized that the outside outlet was on the same circuit as the breaker that had tripped several days ago. That meant that my chicks have been without a heat source for three days. A guess what! They survived. In fact, I don't think they missed a beat. So, this fluke answered my question of when to remove the heat source. Apparently, four weeks is about right!
Here they are: basking in the sun.
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