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

[Blooie]

Got a first try at an MHP setup in my brooder. I'm adding 3 chicks to my flock and using the bottom half of an XL plastic dog crate to brood them in. They're 5 days old - I got them Saturday and they were under a heat lamp until I finished this setup.

MHP is set up on one end. I "helped" them in there initially, and I thought they'd died in there, they stayed so long. Eventually they came wobbling out for more food, all toasty warm. Now, though, they won't go back in! Not sure why. I waited until they were fall-down sleepy on the cool side of the brooder and sort of set them in there, and they just weaseled their way back out. In the weaseling process one wound up on top of it and decided to flop down there. The other two joined her, and there they lay, in a fuzzy clump. The probe thermometer tells me that each enclosed end is around 100* and the middle section next to the opening is around 80*, so they've got a wide range of temps in there. Should I change anything here?

It's most likely too warm....they don't need that pad up to 6 if you're brooding indoors. The temp under mine was 82.5 and the room was 69 degrees. As @junebuggena said, you can also raise the cave a bit. Cute pics!

 

[Naturalchicken]

Hi!
Thanks for spreading the idea of mine around! My original video on youtube is

I also will try to go into more detail about my solar mobile chicken house in another video and photos
Patrice (Naturalchicken)

 

[ksguy]

It's most likely too warm....they don't need that pad up to 6 if you're brooding indoors. The temp under mine was 82.5 and the room was 69 degrees. As @junebuggena said, you can also raise the cave a bit. Cute pics!

Thank you. I guess I was thinking in terms of temps when you use a heat lamp - i.e. 100 degrees under the lamp for the first week. It's an older heating pad with 3 levels and I had it set to the highest. I'll turn it down a notch and raise the opening up a bit so it's more inviting and the heat doesn't build up as much. We keep the house at 70 degrees.

For what it's worth they stayed in that little clump on top of the heating pad all night. When I got up this morning they were still all balled up just snoozing away. It was adorable. As soon as it started getting light they were up and at 'em chowing down and going to cheep-cheep town. It feels good to know they slept through the night the way a hen-raised chick would.

 

[bruceha2000]

Got a first try at an MHP setup in my brooder. I'm adding 3 chicks to my flock and using the bottom half of an XL plastic dog crate to brood them in. They're 5 days old - I got them Saturday and they were under a heat lamp until I finished this setup.

MHP is set up on one end. I "helped" them in there initially, and I thought they'd died in there, they stayed so long. Eventually they came wobbling out for more food, all toasty warm. Now, though, they won't go back in! Not sure why. I waited until they were fall-down sleepy on the cool side of the brooder and sort of set them in there, and they just weaseled their way back out. In the weaseling process one wound up on top of it and decided to flop down there. The other two joined her, and there they lay, in a fuzzy clump. The probe thermometer tells me that each enclosed end is around 100* and the middle section next to the opening is around 80*, so they've got a wide range of temps in there. Should I change anything here?

Too hot. I would pull some of the shavings away from the front as well as turning it down. Temp inside the cave is not important. This is NOT a radiant system, you aren't trying to keep the volume of space inside the cave warm. Contact heat from the pad above is the goal. If the chicks can't get their backs up against the pad anywhere in the cave, press it down. That is the reason they are usually built higher in the front, lower in the back: the chicks can decide how much contact they want.

All chicks are so adorable. I can't wait for mine to arrive!! I have the heating pad, towel and everything else but the cave. I am still deciding if I use a plastic rectangular basket I have. Even though it looks like a cave and I'm able to make it higher at the entrance, it still measures 6 inches high. That height I can't change. Maybe I could use it when the chicks are bigger?

I wouldn't. The "beauty part" of the MHP frame is it can be resized easily when made from wire. Push it down if the pad needs to be closer to the chicks, pull it up when they get bigger.

 

[Redufresne]

Please advise me! Big questions! I really need to get my chicks out to the large coop and yard, as they are clearly feeling too confined in the brooder. I would love to do this on Sunday and they will be almost 4 weeks old then. they are feathered other than their heads. My problem is that next week is supposed to be cold - like 25 to 30 degrees at night and chilly in the days (around 40 degrees, then back up to 60), which is annoying, given it is April. We had a frost on the grass this morning!

My set up is a coop (converted from an already existing rabbit hutch) that is 7 feet by 3 feet, with two added nesting boxes on the side. I have run an extension cord to it to power a heating pad or two. I can put the heating pads on the floor (they don't seem to go under the MHP much anymore) and a huddle box inside.

Here is the thing: I really did not want to put food inside the coop at all. I can hang a small water bottle with nipples, but I prefer to keep water and food in a separate three sided, wind-blocked, structure in the corner of the large coop yard. The feeding station never gets wet inside. It sits about 15 feet from the door to the coop. I have an automatic door that opens at dawn and closes at dusk.

Are the chicks smart enough to come out to eat and then go back to where it is warm? They don't seem like they would understand how to get back to the coop or how to get from the coop to the food. If it is chilly, I wonder if they will just not eat (which would be bad). Or maybe they will come out and not go back in. I will, of course, show them the route back and forth (somehow), but when I'm not watching, I'm worried about the cold. I've had all six thrive so far, I don't want to mess things up now!

I can't be out there 24/7, even though I plan to watch them the first day. Will they catch on pretty quickly? I need the exerpienced people on this forum to advise me on how I can safely make this work. I COULD leave them in the brooder another week, but they are so restless and bored in there already. Thoughts?

Randi

 

[Jensownzoo]

Please advise me!  Big questions!  I really need to get my chicks out to the large coop and yard, as they are clearly feeling too confined in the brooder.  I would love to do this on Sunday and they will be almost 4 weeks old then.  they are feathered other than their heads. My problem is that next week is supposed to be cold - like 25 to 30 degrees at night and chilly in the days (around 40 degrees, then back up to 60), which is annoying, given it is April.  We had a frost on the grass this morning!

My set up is a coop (converted from an already existing rabbit hutch) that is 7 feet by 3 feet, with two added nesting boxes on the side.  I have run an extension cord to it to power a heating pad or two.  I can put the heating pads on the floor (they don't seem to go under the MHP much anymore) and a huddle box inside.

Here is the thing:  I really did not want to put food inside the coop at all.  I can hang a small water bottle with nipples, but I prefer to keep water and food in a separate three sided, wind-blocked, structure in the corner of the large coop yard.  The feeding station never gets wet inside.  It sits about 15 feet from the door to the coop.  I have an automatic door that opens at dawn and closes at dusk.

Are the chicks smart enough to come out to eat and then go back to where it is warm?  They don't seem like they would understand how to get back to the coop or how to get from the coop to the food.  If it is chilly, I wonder if they will just not eat (which would be bad).  Or maybe they will come out and not go back in. I will, of course, show them the route back and forth (somehow), but when I'm not watching, I'm worried about the cold.  I've had all six thrive so far, I don't want to mess things up now!

I can't be out there 24/7, even though I plan to watch them the first day.  Will they catch on pretty quickly?  I need the exerpienced people on this forum to advise me on how I can safely make this work.  I COULD leave them in the brooder another week, but they are so restless and bored in there already.  Thoughts?

Randi

If I had this scenario, I would move them into the coop now and keep them shut in with their food and water for a few days. Then on days that I could spend more time with them I would open the door and let them explore for a few hours, chasing them back into the coop if I saw them getting cold or after "recess" was over. That way they learn how to go in and out. After a few days, you could probably just remove the food/water from the coop entirely.

 

[ksguy]

Too hot. I would pull some of the shavings away from the front as well as turning it down. Temp inside the cave is not important. This is NOT a radiant system, you aren't trying to keep the volume of space inside the cave warm. Contact heat from the pad above is the goal. If the chicks can't get their backs up against the pad anywhere in the cave, press it down. That is the reason they are usually built higher in the front, lower in the back: the chicks can decide how much contact they want.

Aha! That's the ticket. I had the wrong idea in my head, that air temp was what we were after. Contact heat makes perfect sense - just like they'd get from mama chicken. Duh! Thanks!

 

[MesMama]

Happy chicks, doing chicken stuff! Love this way of brooding chicks! Go MHP

 

[bruceha2000]

Please advise me! Big questions! I really need to get my chicks out to the large coop and yard, as they are clearly feeling too confined in the brooder. I would love to do this on Sunday and they will be almost 4 weeks old then. they are feathered other than their heads. My problem is that next week is supposed to be cold - like 25 to 30 degrees at night and chilly in the days (around 40 degrees, then back up to 60), which is annoying, given it is April. We had a frost on the grass this morning!

My set up is a coop (converted from an already existing rabbit hutch) that is 7 feet by 3 feet, with two added nesting boxes on the side. I have run an extension cord to it to power a heating pad or two. I can put the heating pads on the floor (they don't seem to go under the MHP much anymore) and a huddle box inside.

Here is the thing: I really did not want to put food inside the coop at all. I can hang a small water bottle with nipples, but I prefer to keep water and food in a separate three sided, wind-blocked, structure in the corner of the large coop yard. The feeding station never gets wet inside. It sits about 15 feet from the door to the coop. I have an automatic door that opens at dawn and closes at dusk.

Are the chicks smart enough to come out to eat and then go back to where it is warm? They don't seem like they would understand how to get back to the coop or how to get from the coop to the food. If it is chilly, I wonder if they will just not eat (which would be bad). Or maybe they will come out and not go back in. I will, of course, show them the route back and forth (somehow), but when I'm not watching, I'm worried about the cold. I've had all six thrive so far, I don't want to mess things up now!

I can't be out there 24/7, even though I plan to watch them the first day. Will they catch on pretty quickly? I need the exerpienced people on this forum to advise me on how I can safely make this work. I COULD leave them in the brooder another week, but they are so restless and bored in there already. Thoughts?

Randi

At 4 weeks they can be pretty self sufficient though even some of my almost 4 year old hens can be stupid. One of the Faverolles (loud birds!) was at the NE corner of the bigger barn by herself last evening. The door to the lower part and the coop is on the SW corner. All the other girls were down in the barn and this one was squawking a storm. I "led" her back to the SE corner so she would head down to the door. NOTHING DOING, not crossing that 4' band of 1/2" deep snow even though the chicken prints clearly indicated she had walked through it to get to the front of the barn. I went and gave the rest of the girls their nightly scratch. Did she come down? NO, NOT walking through that snow and these girls will do almost anything for scratch. She had gone around the south side of the little barn where there was no snow (the barns are about 15' apart) and was trying to figure out how to get through the wire fence.

For your situation: is the coop elevated? It might take some time before they are comfortable going up and down the ramp. And elevated or not, you might want to make a temporary "chute" from the pop door to the water and food so they have no choice but "coop" and "feeding station". Then expand it some when it is obvious they have acclimated to their new, much larger, space. New is scary for chickens. My brooding hen slowly expanded the area she let the chicks go to. I don't know if they would have found their way back to the barn by themselves at 4 weeks or not. Kind of like kids that get their driver's license. They have NO idea how to get to even familiar places because they never had to think about it before. But at 4 weeks, they should pretty quickly figure out "sleep here, eat there", 15' is not far for a month old bird once they learn the space.

As far as the cave, I WOULD put it out there given the temps. They are used to the warm house so they don't need the extra heat. But outside they might use it. They shouldn't NEED to use it when fully feathered but let them decide.

 

[Molpet]

Thank you. I guess I was thinking in terms of temps when you use a heat lamp - i.e. 100 degrees under the lamp for the first week. It's an older heating pad with 3 levels and I had it set to the highest. I'll turn it down a notch and raise the opening up a bit so it's more inviting and the heat doesn't build up as much. We keep the house at 70 degrees.

For what it's worth they stayed in that little clump on top of the heating pad all night. When I got up this morning they were still all balled up just snoozing away. It was adorable. As soon as it started getting light they were up and at 'em chowing down and going to cheep-cheep town. It feels good to know they slept through the night the way a hen-raised chick would.

my heating pad has 3 levels.. they are in the basement by the window in a stock tank.. it is 63 F next to the tank and above it .. I put it at 3 the first day and they were too hot and I turned it down to 2 and they are very happy at 5 days