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

[FlyWheel]

Quote:
Originally Posted by junebuggena

They can go without heat once they are fully feathered, usually by 4 to 6 weeks old. But they will still need some sort of shelter, a cage is not sufficient.

haha was just typing that.

Make them a 'huddle box', put it in the brooder after turning off the heat(you might have to 'persuade' them to use it) then move it out to the coop with them.
Cardboard box with a bottom a little bigger than what they need to cuddle next to each other without piling and tall enough for them to stand in.
Cut an opening on one side a couple inches from bottom and big enough for 2-3 of them to go thru at once.
Fill the bottom with some pine shavings an inch or so deep.
This will give them a cozy place to sleep/rest, block any drafts and help hold their body heat in.

So basically what I need to do is once they are fully feathered (@ about 4-6 weeks) is to build them a "Mini-Coop"?

( Sorry <sheepish grin> )​

OK, I could do that. Actually, when I built the "Dawg Hawse" I also built a screen that I could insert into it to partition off a 12 Ft2 section, specifically for brooding. It shouldn't be too hard to section off part of the run as well.

 

[Blooie]

Chicks coming this week, looking for final adjustment advice. Have 12x15 sunbeam pad wrapped in press and seal wrap and a layer of paper towel set to high heat. Thing holding it has he back edge about an inch off the ground and the front about 3 inches up. Paper towels over the wood chips for a day or 2. Little worried it won't be warm enough.

Looks like you are about ready....the only thing I wonder about is covering the heating pad itself with Press 'n Seal. Seems to me we had that discussion very early on in the thread and determined that the adhesive directly on the pad might cause some residue problems down the line......or is my brain still asleep this morning?

You guys are all so clever...and for whoever said it, YES, YES!! MHP does seem to bring out the creativity and flexibility in us for some reason. Maybe when we start thinking outside the box it's a lot harder to get back inside the box!

@azygous I kinda gave Ken "the look" when he proudly finished the portals in the brooder pen because they looked too small. Ooops, I may have jumped that gun a bit and they will be perfect. But unlike @aart I have big butts out there.....no slender ones so maybe it wouldn't have mattered!

Good morning all! Wasn't on last night....just plain tired, tired, tired. Sill tired today but got Kendra so time to wake up!!

 

[dreiman9]

Looks like you are about ready....the only thing I wonder about is covering the heating pad itself with Press 'n Seal. Seems to me we had that discussion very early on in the thread and determined that the adhesive directly on the pad might cause some residue problems down the line......or is my brain still asleep this morning? 

You guys are all so clever...and for whoever said it, YES, YES!!  MHP does seem to bring out the creativity and flexibility in us for some reason.  Maybe when we start thinking outside the box it's a lot harder to get back inside the box!

@azygous
 I kinda gave Ken "the look" when he proudly finished the portals in the brooder pen because they looked too small.  Ooops, I may have jumped that gun a bit and they will be perfect.  But unlike @aart
 I have big butts out there.....no slender ones so maybe it wouldn't have mattered!

Good morning all!  Wasn't on last night....just plain tired, tired, tired.  Sill tired today but got Kendra so time to wake up!!

Thanks! I was wondering if the reccomendation on that changed. I'll take that off and just put some paper towels or a rag on top. Just got a call 10 minutes ago that they are in. Girlfriend pickin them up now. Woot! Very excited

 

[Molpet]

Thanks! I was wondering if the reccomendation on that changed. I'll take that off and just put some paper towels or a rag on top. Just got a call 10 minutes ago that they are in. Girlfriend pickin them up now. Woot! Very excited

I but the whole thing in a zippered pillow case so they can't get trapped between the pad and the wire and bunged it.. then I put a old towel over top and change that daily... some doe go between the towel and the pillow case but they can't get trapped.. of course they knock the towel off sometimes.

 

[Faraday40]

Sorry if this has already been answered, but I was wondering at what age do you remove the MHP.

At 4 weeks old, my chicks moved to a rabbit cage inside the run (included a smaller MHP since the big brooder was needed for new chicks.) We had a lovely week of warm temps, so the chicks visited the tractor daily. Today it turned chilly & I'm not sure if 5 wk old chicks can handle 50'F & cloudy without MHP. I would need 100+ ft of extension cord to bring the MHP to the tractor. They are going crazy everytime I walk by their cage. They want to go out to the grass! They are not fully feathered yet.

Advice?

 

[aart]

Sorry if this has already been answered, but I was wondering at what age do you remove the MHP.

At 4 weeks old, my chicks moved to a rabbit cage inside the run (included a smaller MHP since the big brooder was needed for new chicks.) We had a lovely week of warm temps, so the chicks visited the tractor daily. Today it turned chilly & I'm not sure if 5 wk old chicks can handle 50'F & cloudy without MHP. I would need 100+ ft of extension cord to bring the MHP to the tractor. They are going crazy everytime I walk by their cage. They want to go out to the grass! They are not fully feathered yet.

Advice?

Scroll back just a few pages......

 

[mymilliefleur]

Sorry if this has already been answered, but I was wondering at what age do you remove the MHP.

At 4 weeks old, my chicks moved to a rabbit cage inside the run (included a smaller MHP since the big brooder was needed for new chicks.) We had a lovely week of warm temps, so the chicks visited the tractor daily. Today it turned chilly & I'm not sure if 5 wk old chicks can handle 50'F & cloudy without MHP. I would need 100+ ft of extension cord to bring the MHP to the tractor. They are going crazy everytime I walk by their cage. They want to go out to the grass! They are not fully feathered yet.

Advice?

I put my now 5 week old chicks out in a chicken tractor a week ago (so when they were 4 weeks old). It is warm during the day (70's) but it has been getting down in the low 40's at night. At first I was a bit conserned about them being out their in those temps, but everyone did just fine. I put a big box upside down with a whole cut in the side (like @aart mentioned a few pages back) and they all went under it at night.
I would keep an eye on them, if they seemed huddled and cold, than you might want to put them back with MHP, but I'm guessing they will do just fine.

 

[bruceha2000]

There are a lot of dogs who are willing to take the hit from an invisible fence to get out of the perimeter...who are then unmotivated to take it to get back IN.

That happens with the in ground WIRED electric fences. My sister had a German Shepherd that chased squirrels. I think they had about 2 acres. He would blow "through" the fence after a squirrel and they would find him sitting outside it when they got home from work. I BELIEVE the wireless fences only strike on the way out, not on the way back in. I don't know how they do that. There are some that just form a circle and others that you can form a shape so as to exclude them from some areas while allowing access to others. The latter type need to be "trained" with special signal flags so the system can determine the shape and "memorize it". Some of the circle ones are portable, once your dog is trained to the warning signal, you can take them and the fence to visit family for example and keep the dog in a defined space.

GPs, like many Livestock Guardian Dogs, have a bigger "mental" territory due to their breeding form many centuries to stay with the flock they tend. As I read it, some will travel a mile no problem so they DO need to be contained. Of course ALL dogs need to be contained unless maybe your house is in the middle of 1,000 acres.

Out in the run for the first time. Eating, drinking, and heading in single file.

Blooie! You are going to kill your chicks if you put them outside before they are a year old! And no heat lamp???

Dues paid

Thank you for getting back to me! I went back there to check on them and I pulled them out to get a real good look at each. They all started eating and stayed out for a little while, which made me feel a little bit better about it all. I plan on fixing the cave today in a bit, myself and my DH are both sick so we take a lot of breaks during the day lol. They can't get stuck that I can see but it does concern me so I am going to fix it tonight. Which do you think is better, a cave like set up with the rounded sides, or more of a heat plate like set up with a flat top? I could easily do either with maybe 20 minutes work with what we have on hand.

I might also order the heating pad you have used as the one we have is a cheap older one with just the sliding low-med-hi option. It doesn't shut off, or at least hasn't for the last four hours, but I do wonder about how hot it gets and how well it will hold up to 24/7 use. They just overall seem to be quiet calm chicks. Although when one eats they all mob the same spot and it makes me laugh. I am hoping to get a nice brooder built for my covered porch tomorrow and moving them outside, gets around 70ish during the day and 40s at night. And then over the next few weeks we will build our coop, or convert the greenhouse into a coop. I'll try to get some pictures next time I go in there to hover and stare at them, but for now I will just share what breeds I have. I got 2 buff Orps. , 1 barred rock, 1 white rock, and 1 Colombian Wyandotte.

If they NEVER come out, the cave is probably cooler than it should be.

I may have just lost my first chick under MHP. Went out to check on them and one was running around all over the run! Good grief, how did she get out??? Ken was helping me catch her and there was another one behind the dust bath bin....cold, stiffening, no life signs at all. So we caught the first one, put her back, and then dealt with the minuscule little gap we missed but they found. I was ready to wrap the "dead" one when she gasped in my hand. So I started rubbing her little chest - none too gently and she took another breath. She's right in the incubator with the unhatched eggs until Ken finishes rigging the new heating pad set up for her.

Oh my! Shades of Scout. Glad I didn't read until all the installments were in. I'm NOT going to guess a gender for that chick, you know how well I did with Scout.

Well my chicks are 4 weeks old tomorrow...we're thinking about integrating (maybe I need to start another thread? If so just say the word, I just thought since everyone in here already knows about brooding in the coop and that the chicks have been out there since the start that it might make it easier to answer?)

With brooding them in the coop from the start, this is what I've gathered from this thread on how to do it-
I have a 5x7 portal in the brooder, thinking maybe we need to cut another one? Anyway, I've been doing the feeding side by side thing for a couple weeks now, just tossing feed or meal worms down on both sides of the brooder. So I just go ahead and let them out for "supervised visits"? How long do you let them out for? I don't have a run or a pen, the coop is in a pasture that is 1 acre fenced in with just livestock fencing, so do I just let them out into the coop for now and wait to actually let them outside?
And the how many times do I do the supervised visits before I can just leave their portal open?

**DANG I'm nervous about letting them out! Lol!** So any advice you have is greatly appreciated

When I got my first chicks, I made a temporary (OK it is still there) a cheesy "run" about 18' x 18' with one side being the barn wall (because that is how much old chicken wire and old plastic T-posts I found in the barn). At first we let them out only into that space. Then when we were outside watching chicken TV we opened the "gate" so they could explore. They slowly expanded their range as they got older but stuck together pretty much their entire first summer and fall.

They won't go very far at first, EVERYTHING is new and scary. You can let them out as long as they want to stay out if you are willing to hang out and find "outdoor stuff" to do in the general area. I would be more afraid of aerial predators picking them off than them getting to the fence line and going farther. At least for awhile.

Quote:
Yep, let the bigs out for the day and shut them out, then let the littles explore the area. More than likely the "risk" time with bigs and littles is around food and treats. One of my Cubalayas still chases the "chicks" (1 year old this coming June) from BOSS and scratch even though they could hang her up by her tail feathers if they wanted to given she is 2/3 their size.

I'm sure this has been discussed already, so feel free to direct me to the proper thread or section if it has, but when should I take my babies out to a sequestered section of the pen to introduce them to the rest of the flock? As the pen is way down the hill in the 'lower 40' I would NOT have electricity to power the MHP down there. So what I guess I'm really asking is how old do they have to be before they can live comfortably in the outdoors without any auxiliary heat?

Nighttime temperatures are averaging in the 50s. Currently they are 3 weeks old and staying in their brooder bin (with the MHP) in the garage, which is neither heated nor insulated, but is draft free. Outside they would initially be in a large cage, which obviously would not be draft free.


Thanks for your replies

They NEED draft free. They should be fine when fully feathered, usually by 4 weeks, without heat as long as they can stay out of the weather and that includes wind in the area they sleep (or hide from breezes).

I probably could have done it sooner, but I kicked my first batch of chicks outside when they were 8 weeks old. They had a tarp for a windbreak, a plastic doghouse (stuffed with straw), and two bales of straw to mitigate the cold. It was 70 when I put them out...snowed the next day. Everybody did fine.

COULD have??

But whatever one is comfortable with is the BEST thing for them.

This is all my fault, and I'm indeed very sorry! I was rounding out the measurement of my portals when they are actually four and a half inches wide by five inches tall. I guess that extra half inch was enough to permit a slim hen to squeeze through. I really didn't thing a quarter inch on each side of the frame would make a difference!

Do I get a virtual lashing?

Absolutely! NO mistakes are allowed in the Broodie Brigade. EVERYTHING has to be done to perfection and the carefully engineered specifications of a MHP setup

THOUSANDS of chicks could have been killed by your carelessness

OK, lashing over, back to your regularly scheduled activities.

I should probably post this in another thread, but I need an answer from MHPers, not lampers. The lampers would crucify me. Using the MHP changes the rules, and I guess I feel like a newb again. How early is too early to let them in the run? They were climbing the inside ramp to the upper tier of the coop above the cave and then doing cannonballs onto the heads of their fellow flockmates below... over and over and over again. It was 80+ degrees outside today so I took the hardware cloth off the pop door. It seems a committee was formed to discuss the new situation, but no one volunteered to go down the ramp first.

(the committee)

They've been vaccinated for Mareks but nothing else and they're on non-medicated feed. Is the MHP making me too bold?

Nope, none of my chicks were vaccinated and I never bought medicated feed. I do think that ramp looks too steep and the cleats are too far apart. The chicks don't exactly climb uphill real well. And put yourself in their position. The coop door is how high off the ground? Figure out how many "chick heights" that is then apply the ratio to a 1 year old child. Would the CHILD want to go down a steep ramp without "handholds" they can reach?

That sounds like a good plan! I had a dream last night that we let the littles out and all 19 of them SCATTERED all over that one acre pasture and there was a hawk waiting :O It was a disaster and I woke up with my heart pounding! I wonder if I need to rig up a pen that limits how far they can all go for a few weeks, even the bigs...ugh I don't know. My hubby says to just open it up and let em go

Oh my, you ARE suffering! See my post about a temporary outdoor run above. Takes about 10 minutes to put up and easy to move whenever you like.

 

[azygous]

Blooie, how's your little chick doing that escaped and just about died? I couldn't find an update. It's amazing how emotionally invested we become in baby chicks, even other people's.

 

[Moxiechick]

I am in tears right now as I type this. I went to go check on the brooder this morning and found my little Blue Ameraucana chick wedged between the hardware cloth and the heating pad, dead.

I feel like this is all my fault. I let her down! The system seemed to be working wonderfully. They've been happy and growing. She was only a week old! She was the main reason I decided to go with raising baby chicks this year, instead of getting started 6 week old pullets from the feed store, as I've always wanted a Blue Ameraucana. I feel just sick right now!

I just thought I'd share this so it doesn't happen to anyone else.