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

[aart]

I think I'm just doing 1x2s bc I have a lot for a project and we can still use them after.

Unless that other project is a chicken project, you might not be reusing them as they will likely be covered with chicken poop.
I have a stack of poop stained/covered perches/roosts of various sizes in the corner...they only get used for chicken projects-or burned.

 

[KiminPA]

Unless that other project is a chicken project, you might not be reusing them as they will likely be covered with chicken poop.
I have a stack of poop stained/covered perches/roosts of various sizes in the corner...they only get used for chicken projects-or burned.  

Lol point taken. We do have a coop to build yet so I guess we can use them for that

 

[perchie.girl]

Or you could paint the perches with a good waterproof paint like Killz.... I used to paint all my perches for the Aviary AND my nest boxers.... with lfowers and leaves and little Ladybugs.... I know I know.... BUT it hid all the parakeet poo And I could take them out and give them a good soaking with the garden hose this would allow me to wipe them down...

.Oh and for what its worth the base coat was Killz all the rest was non toxic Acrylics from my art supplies. Also Acrylics for painting pictures can be mixed with any acrylic house paint in small batches for making other colors.

deb

 

[bmissouri]

My chicks are doing great in their brooder on my patio. This picture was taken at 9:30 pm, the outside temperature was 76 and these 4 day old chicks aren't even sleeping all next to each other.

The quail are doing good with the heating pad as well. We had 17 out of 25 hatch, I had no idea they were so tiny, tiny, tiny. They use the heating pad about the same as the chicks but they do spend more time under it.

 

[Blooie]

Oh, they ARE tiny! Happy that MHP is working as well for them as it does for chicken chicks. (did that make any sense?) I might suggest that you build up the shavings underneath the one for the quail so they are closer to the pad.....it looks kinda high up from their backs right now, and they really like that heat just about on them at first. Or does it just look high in the pictures? Oh, and your dues are considered PAID! Thanks for sharing!!

 

[Victoria-nola]

UPDATE!!! Oh how I wish I had pictures.

Today the chicks are 2 weeks old. This is day 3 of working on making a safer yard area for the chickens before we have the chicks come out of the MHP brooder, it will still be a couple days. Bill roughly mowed the grass in the yard so there are different levels to interest the birds. Then Bill put in a couple of perches into the brooder, and I changed the hay completely, plus reconfigured MHP to be higher. Heating pad setting has been on "1" for days-- it's been 72 lows overnight and they often sleep on top not inside. Because we were completely revamping the brooder, to keep them safe we took them out and put them in the finch cage I used as a landing base for the hatch. As a result, the adult chickens were able to get a good long look at the chicks for the first time and hear them because they were out in the open and the big coop door was open so it was light in there. The coop is a bit dark because it's a barn stall.

So, we had a big rainstorm late in the afternoon and I took the opportunity to improve the drainage around the barn-- that big overhang doesn't have gutters and the area wasn't contoured properly and when we get lots of rain it was running off toward the barn instead of away. Anyway point is, the chickens saw us working very hard on their space. And when I looked in on them before heading back into the house, for the very first time they are spread out over 2 different levels of the roosts in there. We have four roosts that are 2x4s laid flat, each one another step higher. The ten chickens have always perched on 1 single roost, the highest one. But there they were, all spread out on 2 roosts, lounging and looking happy and relaxed. And I realized, they are making room for the littles! They are making space for them, just like we've been making space for them.

I'm awed by how cool that is.

 

[azygous]

Update on the azygous four. The little show-offs went on walk-about outside the run today. These squirts are waaaay more precocious than any chicks I've had in a long while. Usually chicks hang out inside the run, not feeling brave enough to tackle the huge world outside until they're closer to five or six weeks. These guys turned three weeks today,

They spent a good long time "free-ranging" so I figured tonight was as good a time as any to move them into the coop. So I moved their MHP in and some food and water and invited the four chicks to explore the inside of their coop two hours before bedtime.

They did not freak out like last years chicks did over being in the completely strange new place, and they explored and had a good time until bedtime when I could hear them complaining 100 yards away. They needed to be shown that their cave was right there and when I stuck each one inside, they settled right down.

 

[COChix]

Update on the azygous four. The little show-offs went on walk-about outside the run today. These squirts are waaaay more precocious than any chicks I've had in a long while. Usually chicks hang out inside the run, not feeling brave enough to tackle the huge world outside until they're closer to five or six weeks. These guys turned three weeks today,

They spent a good long time "free-ranging" so I figured tonight was as good a time as any to move them into the coop. So I moved their MHP in and some food and water and invited the four chicks to explore the inside of their coop two hours before bedtime.

They did not freak out like last years chicks did over being in the completely strange new place, and they explored and had a good time until bedtime when I could hear them complaining 100 yards away. They needed to be shown that their cave was right there and when I stuck each one inside, they settled right down.

Congrats, what do you think it is? I have seen the same thing, each batch of chicks were smarter and smarter and more brave each year. Our's were integrated with the adults at 3 weeks, this year.

 

[Leahs Mom]

@azygous
When you say they were "free ranging" do you mean outside or in the run?

 

[azygous]

The four chicks went out of the run. I put "free-ranging" in quotes because they circled around the run, sticking very close. But they were outside in the big wild world with bears and lions and hawks and foxes. They were busy pecking at everything they saw, and were obviously having fun.

I let them play outside for half an hour and then I got over protective and called them inside. Three came in right away, and one scooted around the run to the people door where she got "lost" behind the open door, a typical chicken mistake. She saw me and came right to me and I set her inside the door and she ran and rejoined her mates.

I kept thinking, they're only three weeks old. They're much too young for this. Now I know how all the new chick mamas feel.