Mama Heating Pad in the Brooder (Picture Heavy) - UPDATE

[Beekissed]

@Blooie So it seems I'm having the biggest issue with what size towel...

As for the back, is that where I should squish down the wire, or all over? I'd like to use this in their grow out coop too! Thank you!

Not Blooie but I can give you an answer. Squish down all of it until it's even across and about 2.5 in. off the surface of your bedding...no need to squat it down in the back. Leave both ends open so they can come and go easily. Use a thin towel as you can so they can receive heat through it well. A dish towel or hand towel would do it. I used a flannel pillow case with great results.

 

[gotro17]

That's what I did, but it didn't drape enough... Blooie had referenced you before regarding trapped chicks... What happened?

 

[Beekissed]

That's what I did, but it didn't drape enough... Blooie had referenced you before regarding trapped chicks... What happened?

Don't remember but I don't think it had anything to do with the HP brooder...probably with the outside pen they were in. Maybe she was thinking of someone else? I know she had a few trapped by her brood pen a time or so.

You might try a pillow case? It covers the whole thing inside and out and you don't have to worry about it slipping off if you bungee it on.

 

[gotro17]

Don't remember but I don't think it had anything to do with the HP brooder...probably with the outside pen they were in.  Maybe she was thinking of someone else?  I know she had a few trapped by her brood pen a time or so. 

You might try a pillow case?  It covers the whole thing inside and out and you don't have to worry about it slipping off if you bungee it on. 

Why not just wrap the heating pad? What purpose does the towel serve?

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
Oh I so forgot you did this......


never mind......

 

[Beekissed]

Why not just wrap the heating pad? What purpose does the towel serve?

I just used it to cover the wire and the HP to keep a warm fuzzy next to the chicks instead of the wire walls of the brooder frame and as a covering to the HP to keep the worst of the poo off it. The HP actually is washable, so it's no big deal but it still made for a nice, soft surface for the chicks to sit on when they sat on top of the wire frame for the heat. My HP was suspended under the frame, so the top surface was just wire...the pillow case just put a softness between the chicks and the wire.

My first covering of the pad looked like this.....it was a hand sewn fleece, custom fitted broody "mama", filled with feathers so as to be as real a mama as possible. But then I figured out the feathers insulated the pad so much that the heat wasn't coming through as well as I liked. Plus, the fleece held on the moisture of the poop too much, so I scratched the fleecy, pretty mama and switched to the much thinner, easily dried and still soft flannel pillow case.

 

[Blooie]

Thanks, Bee. I gave the link to your incubation experiment a page or two ago as well.

@gotro17 I can't remember who it was here on the thread who had a chick that got caught in the wires, but I know it wasn't Bee. I use a towel for a couple of reasons. I like draping it down the front because the chicks I've had like that "ducking" into the cave feeling. I like covering the heating pad so they aren't climbing and pooping directly on the heating pad. You will be stunned by how much time they spend ON it and not IN it. The towel also "mutes" the warmth a bit so it's more comfortable, and acts as a layer of insulation to keep the heat very even.

 

[gotro17]

Thanks, Bee.  I gave the link to your incubation experiment a page or two ago as well.  

@gotro17
   I can't remember who it was here on the thread who had a chick that got caught in the wires, but I know it wasn't Bee. I use a towel for a couple of reasons.  I like draping it down the front because the chicks I've had like that "ducking" into the cave feeling.  I like covering the heating pad so they aren't climbing and pooping directly on the heating pad.  You will be stunned by how much time they spend ON it and not IN it.  The towel also "mutes" the warmth a bit so it's more comfortable, and acts as a layer of insulation to keep the heat very even.

How big if a towel? Dish towel seems too small, bath towel too big

 

[Blooie]

I have a stack of old threadbare towels that I picked up at Goodwill. And we all have a few that we can see daylight through when we hold them up. I just use those folded in half. You can see that on the first page of the thread.

 

[aart]

Quote: I've had one kinda get head stuck in wire, just for a second tho and it wasn't hurt....sure did squeak tho!
Had a chick get tangled up in real live broody hens breast feathers last year, had to cut it out off the hen, then cut feather 'noose' off chicks neck.

Tried the towel thing, found it to be a bit of a PITA.
I use a piece of thin plywood(luan) with that sticky glad wrap stuff on it to go on top of pad, used an inking roller to really press it onto wood...
...thin enough to be warm, dried poops pretty much flick off, and heavy enough so doesn't need to be 'tied' in place. It worked great.
Pics here...https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/pseudo-brooder-heater-plate