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

[plynneb]

Very cute fluffy butts!!! Awww congrats!

 

[csneill]

They're so cute! I also ordered from chickens for backyards for my welsummers in May- I ordered 6- they sent 7 (straight run)- 4 pullets & 3 cockerels. Very happy w their service!

 

[just13nat]

So this is our first year raising chicks, I had bought 2 in the spring but chicken math hit. In April we went from 2 to 5 to 7. Then we were given a year old silkie as well. I hadn't planned on buying any more chicks, but I went to our local feed store and they had a brooder of week old Polish chicks. On a whim, I bought two Polish and couldn't leave the lonely Easter Egger by herself, so I bought her too. My husband has now banned me from future feed store trips.

He's now going to have to build a second coop. We've had the two Polish for about a week now, and they are so much more high maintenance than all the others! Constantly chirping, pasty butt issues, etc. I feel like the Easter Egger's looking at the other two like "please shut up!!" They're brooder is indoors for now, but they were keeping my whole family up at night with their chirping. We were looking at moving the dog crate we brood in outdoors since its summer, but I remembered reading some of this thread back in the spring. So on a whim last night, I went and bought a heating pad and also a feather duster. Sat it all up for them, and in less than five minutes after I turned out the lights and put them in the cave, it was complete silence!! All night long! Amazing! Here's some pics of the new babies. I also put the feather duster I bought in the back of the cave, and this feather cat toy in the front. It was getting late last night, so I'm not completely happy with the set-up we threw together. I'm going to re-do it a bit today, my toddlers potty-training now so I'm going to use some of his cloth diapers (prefolds) around the heating pad/hardware cloth cave. I also used rocks on the sides of the base to help steady the hardware cloth.

 

[Blooie]

Welcome to the Broody Brigade! Amazing how they settle right down and go to sleep, isn't it?

Word of warning about the feather dusters....some folks are using them for chicks, but with MHP they aren't necessary. The chicks have never known "feathers" anyway, so they wouldn't be missing anything if they didn't have it. Some chicks have been caught up in the strands of the feather dusters, and I know of at least one who didn't make it when it got a strand wrapped around it's neck overnight. Granted, some chicks are just hatched looking for a way to die - I know, I had one! - and no matter what we do if it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen. It's up to you, of course....aside from a few very basics there is no totally right way to use MHP....

One word of advice...your set up looks like it has lots of folds and stuff in it. Smooth is better rather than "fluffy", since chicks ain't the brightest crayons in the box and get themselves hung in a lot of froo-froo.

Most of us are past done with chicks for the year, so we need our "chick fix." Consider your dues paid....although a few close-ups of the little stinkers might be fun.

 

[bruceha2000]

Bedtime temps in 90's but by 5-6 am they are in the 80's...occasionally upper 70's. So is the consensus with everyone that it is okay to turn off heating pad for good? I worry about my littlest chicks because they only have feathers on the outermost wing. Not even any tail feathers coming in yet. They are still only fluff balls which I thought that the down has very little insulating properties? The littles only pop back under for a few minutes in the early mornings when they need it and the setting is down to 4 now.

Once the bigger birds(fully feathered wings) are up for the day eating and scratching they won't lie back down to help keep the littlest ones warm. I know they all stay warm at night in their little bundle of thirteen chicks...

I guess I'm a worry wart. Or a "mother hen"

By the way...they are in a very large coop with lots of vents open too. It is always their choice to stay near or under the pad or not. The death of my favorite little one who chilled to death has made me extra cautious.

I sure wish I had an infrared camera so I could watch them at night in the coop....but my hubby would send me to the funny farm if I suggested that!!!

In the old (and noisy) method of brooding chicks, your ambient temps would be between 80 and 85 in the brooder at the age your birds are now. So they clearly don't need the pad on during the day. But it can be on at night so they can snuggle up to it.

They're he-e-r-e!

The Post Office called @ 8 am to let me know. So I readied the brood-bin; turned on the MHP, the timer controlled red LED light, ground some of the pullet's starter/grower crumbles into powder and set it and a waterer full of warm water for them.

YEA!!!! I wonder about powdering the starter crumbles, they are already chick size. Hard to pick up "dust". I also wonder about the red light. Why? The reason heat lamps are red is so if there is any blood the chicks don't see it and peck (not something I've experienced but I've read it happens). But one of the many valuable parts of the MHP brooder is NATURAL day/night cycles because there is no need for the heat lamp.

Soo cute - your dues are paid!

Look carefully at the yellow chick - do you see even a faint marking of a sort of charcoal "smudge", just barely noticeable? This is how my yellow EE chick turned out, and she had very faint charcoal or bluish smudges, like tiny a tiny thumbprint, on her back.


Agatha....

Yeah, 'Chipmunk' seems to be the top scheme for EE's, at least from what I've seen. And yes Blooie, having had a second, closer look there is a faint darkening on the crown of her head. But I'm still hoping for my Little Snow White Hen.

Um, OK we can all dream

But if she isn't white NOW, not sure why she would be white later. Eos was a white as the White Rocks other than the most faint apricot smudge on her head.



The Rocks are still pure white. OK, they aren't white, they are dirty. White sucks up a lot of dirt, especially when they are wet.

 

[aart]

Some chicks have been caught up in the strands of the feather dusters, and I know of at least one who didn't make it when it got a strand wrapped around it's neck overnight.

I had a chick get tangled around the neck in a real live broodys breast feathers....had to cut it off the broody then take it inside and cut the 'noose' off the chick.

 

[FlyWheel]

One thing I thought I should bring up, Just in case no one else has, since it happened to me today....If you are using the Sunbeam XpressHeat be aware that if the power cuts out, even for a fraction of a second it will turn off! Eventually leaving your babies with no heat if you don't go and turn it back on again!

 

[Blooie]

One thing I thought I should bring up, Just in case no one else has, since it happened to me today....If you are using the Sunbeam XpressHeat be aware that if the power cuts out, even for a fraction of a second it will turn off! Eventually leaving your babies with no heat if you don't go and turn it back on again!

Yep....that's the one drawback, and you also have to remember to click that "Stay On" button again when you turn it back on. But in a nicely covered cave, heat is retained for a surpisingly long time. @henless found a Sunbeam heating pad that doesn't have automatic shutoff, and in the event power is lost it simply comes back on when the power is restored to the last setting it was on. She's been very happy with its performance. She bought it and made sure that she reviewed it in the thread several months back. Thank goodness for folks who like to share stuff! Here's a link to that pad, for anyone who might be interested:

http://www.sunbeam.com/pain-relief/...ology-blue/000771-810-000.html#sz=12&start=18

We had an unexpected spring blizzard when my third batch of MHP chicks was being brooded out in the run. Winds were gusting to 60+ and the snow was literally coming down sideways. We went to bed about 11, and sometime during the night we lost power. We have no idea how long it was off, but the sounds of it coming back on around 2 am were what woke up Ken. He yelled, "The chicks!" and we got bundled and hurried out there. The pad was obviously off and way cool, but because of all the insulating straw in, around, and on top of the cave they were still snug and did just great. The cave held enough residual heat for them. Next morning they were running all over the place as usual.

 

[FlyWheel]

Quote:
I think for a day old even the crumbles may be a bit big for their tiny throats. The bin is full enough so that it is deeper then their tiny beaks are long. so they should be fine. They'll be on crumbles soon enough.

Quote:
The red light is also supposed to have a calming effect on the chicks, so they don't bicker as much. I read that here somewhere, Also my lamp is plugged into a small appliance timer so it automatically turns on at 7AM and off at 7PM (or any other time I set). There isn't enough light in my garage to give them any real sort of day night cycle. And I have no electricity down in the coop/run area.

Quote:
Are they all white at the "fuzz-ball" stage? I don't think I have ever seen a snow white chick. But then, I've never raised a snow white chicken either! I've had ducks that were all white, but they were yellow as babies.

 

[FlyWheel]

Yep....that's the one drawback, and you also have to remember to click that "Stay On" button again when you turn it back on. But in a nicely covered cave, heat is retained for a surpisingly long time. @henless found a Sunbeam heating pad that doesn't have automatic shutoff, and in the event power is lost it simply comes back on when the power is restored to the last setting it was on. She's been very happy with its performance. She bought it and made sure that she reviewed it in the thread several months back. Thank goodness for folks who like to share stuff! Here's a link to that pad, for anyone who might be interested:

http://www.sunbeam.com/pain-relief/...ology-blue/000771-810-000.html#sz=12&start=18

We had an unexpected spring blizzard when my third batch of MHP chicks was being brooded out in the run. Winds were gusting to 60+ and the snow was literally coming down sideways. We went to bed about 11, and sometime during the night we lost power. We have no idea how long it was off, but the sounds of it coming back on around 2 am were what woke up Ken. He yelled, "The chicks!" and we got bundled and hurried out there. The pad was obviously off and way cool, but because of all the insulating straw in, around, and on top of the cave they were still snug and did just great. The cave held enough residual heat for them. Next morning they were running all over the place as usual.

Whew! That's nice to know! And thanks for the link to the "auto-back-on" model, I think I just might look into that.