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

[casportpony]

This is what Brinsea says about their plate, which might also apply to heating pads:
Quote: Source: https://www.brinsea.com/manuals/EcoGlow50manualUS2015.pdf

 

[azygous]

Missing the point. You aren't heating the 'cave'. The chicks get warm by direct contact with the pad. Ignore the exact temperature, it doesn't matter one bit. What are the chicks telling you?

When I brooded my first batch of six chicks under MHP, I fretted and fussed, even asked Blooie what the temp was under her MHP. She replied, "I never measured it!" Being the helpful lass that she is, she immediately went out and stuck a digital sensor under her cave and reported 85F was the average temp. I got myself a digital thermometer and stuck it under my cave. 85F.

Then I worried it wouldn't be warm enough for the babies. I lost sleep over it. The babies, however, didn't. They slept just fine snugged up under the heating pad, their bodies in direct contact with the pad. They were content.

I didn't completely understand the concept of MHP until one of the chicks had to come indoors because it was very sick. (Failure to thrive.) It was then that I saw how a chick pressed its back up against the heating pad, and I learned how crucial it is to have the pad at exactly the height of the chicks backs so they don't have to sleep standing up in order to make contact with the pad. It was in carrying for the sick chick and watching her with her own MHP that I finally understood the principle involved.

A year later, I experimented further to determine what kind of temperatures MHP can put out. Depending on the ambient temp, the heating pad can get up to 110F with direct contact if the surround temps and floor temp is warm to begin with. This is one reason you do not want to use a heat lamp with MHP!

So, basically, you start out using the highest setting on the MHP the first week as long as the ambient temps are very cool. (Mine were 30 at night 50F during the day, The second week, as the chicks begin to get feathers, you turn the setting down one more. The next week, use the next lower setting, etc, until by five weeks, the chicks aren't needing any heat.

It's really very simple. We just have a need to make things more complicated than they need to be.

 

[e72071]

When I brooded my first batch of six chicks under MHP, I fretted and fussed, even asked Blooie what the temp was under her MHP. She replied, "I never measured it!" Being the helpful lass that she is, she immediately went out and stuck a digital sensor under her cave and reported 85F was the average temp. I got myself a digital thermometer and stuck it under my cave. 85F.

Then I worried it wouldn't be warm enough for the babies. I lost sleep over it. The babies, however, didn't. They slept just fine snugged up under the heating pad, their bodies in direct contact with the pad. They were content.

I didn't completely understand the concept of MHP until one of the chicks had to come indoors because it was very sick. (Failure to thrive.) It was then that I saw how a chick pressed its back up against the heating pad, and I learned how crucial it is to have the pad at exactly the height of the chicks backs so they don't have to sleep standing up in order to make contact with the pad. It was in carrying for the sick chick and watching her with her own MHP that I finally understood the principle involved.

A year later, I experimented further to determine what kind of temperatures MHP can put out. Depending on the ambient temp, the heating pad can get up to 110F with direct contact if the surround temps and floor temp is warm to begin with. This is one reason you do not want to use a heat lamp with MHP!

So, basically, you start out using the highest setting on the MHP the first week as long as the ambient temps are very cool. (Mine were 30 at night 50F during the day, The second week, as the chicks begin to get feathers, you turn the setting down one more. The next week, use the next lower setting, etc, until by five weeks, the chicks aren't needing any heat.

It's really very simple. We just have a need to make things more complicated than they need to be.

I cannot tell you how helpful that was. This is our first batch of chicks and we are obsessing about getting it right for the babies. I'm not sure our MHP is low enough (height wise) for them.

Now a very stupid question. Am I to assume that a setting of 6 on the MHP is the highest? The instructions did not state what the highest was but logic would say that should be.

 

[azygous]

Yes, 6 is the warmest temp. It is just right for the first week as long as you're not in the tropics.

The reason most of us have stuck with the flexible metal fencing scrap for our MHP frame is because it's so easy to adjust the height. When you get your babies, peek under the pad and see if they're squatting to sleep or standing up, stretching with legs extended to contact the underside of the pad. If you see that, just push down on the pad until it is low enough that the chicks can sleep in a normal squat or pancaked, as chicks like to sleep during their first few days.

They grow incredibly fast, so you will be likely adjusting the pad almost daily.

Just come on back here if you have any questions. We're all anxious to help!

 

[lpyrbby]

If they seem to prefer the other side of the run, any chance you can move their heat source to that side?
Or just make them a "nest" on their preferred side with sides high enough that any cold wind won't chill them... can be as simple as putting up a couple pieces of plywood outside the run. Wind is what steals heat. i.e. if your weather forecast has winds from the south west, put boards up on the south and west sides of the run. Or you can just wait for the cooler temps to pass, especially if it's only a couple nights.

The side they prefer is the door lol If I keep them out there when it gets cold again, I may go out there and add some wind blocks. Gonna play it by ear at this point.

Think about it this way - if they had a real Mama Hen, do you think that they'd all fit under her at 5 weeks? Nope. She's usually teaching them to roost about this stage. They usually snuggle together because they all just plain can't all get under her anymore. And with as much feathering as they now have, they don't really need the additional heat. The thing we tell folks about using MHP is that the chicks regulate their own comfort. So that's what they are doing. And if you are putting them in unfamiliar surroundings, they'll naturally huddle together for security anyway. Chicks, like chickens, don't do change well.

My first batch of chicks, raised under a heat lamp, went out at 5 weeks. I just couldn't handle the mess, the dust and the noise anymore. That first night I went nuts. I was in and out of bed all night long! I'd put a wireless thermometer in the coop, and a heat lamp, and I put the receiver next to my bed. I kept watching that temperature go down...35......30.....and when it hit 20 I was in a panic. I kept putting on my boots and a heavy coat over my jammies and running out there with a flashlight to check them. Every time I did, they were nowhere near the heat lamp - they were snuggled down in a pile of beaks and feathers in front of the pop door. I went out the next day expecting to find chick-cicles, and instead I saw 23 very happy chicks waiting for me to open the door. They were eating and doing just great. Second night, same story, except I wisely stayed in bed and only got up one time as it hit 19 degrees. They were in exactly the same place they'd been the night before. On the third day I took out the heat lamp. They weren't using it anyway. That night it snowed. This was all during the first week of April. We didn't get our last snowfall until June 6th. Yeah. Delicate? The only critter freezing was me. And these were chicks that I hadn't had the good sense to slowly acclimate...they went from the house out to the coop in one fell swoop. I don't recommend that, of course, but now I start even home incubator hatched chicks directly outdoors in the spring. Spring chick season in Wyoming is still pretty cold compared to much of the country, but they are still weaned completely off the heating pad by around 4 weeks.

They are indeed hardier than we give them credit for. You have to do what you think is right, but at 5 weeks old trying to stuff them under a heating pad they are clearly telling you they don't want to be under anymore is kinda like an exercise in futility.

Thanks for that

I have them out in the pen still and they're mostly sleeping from what I can tell on the camera. It actually looks like they're getting up and moving around some and then settle, but it is hard to tell for sure. I haven't heard any loud cheeping when I step outside with the dogs for a potty break (not near the chicks) so I'm taking that as a positive sign.

I do wish my camera were a little better so I could SEE what they're doing! Nighttime snacks? Fussing for a good spot?? Hmph.

I'd really like them to just stay outside at this point. I want to leave them out overnight so that's what I'm aiming for so I don't have to be late to work again from moving them outside in the morning

 

[e72071]

I think (hope) they are starting to settle in. At first when we shut the lights out they thought their food dish was their bed. They all started to huddle there. We showed them the MHP cave and they seemed to have stopped chirping and staying in the cave. So I'm taking that as they are comfortable and ready for sleep after a long 2 days of travel.

 

[mirandalola]

How many chicks would fit under one heating pad? Assuming the size the OP uses, 12x24 inches, but on a tunnel that will make it something more like 12x18 or 12x12..... if I'm raising 60 chicks, how many heating pads will I need?

 

[lpyrbby]

Argh! We've had three roaming canine visitors tonight and fortunately they haven't tried to terrorize the chickens that I can tell (even though they went right by the pen) but now I'm extra nervous about leaving the chicks out tonight. They're in a hardware cloth/PVC pen...

Woosah. Woooooooooosaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!

 

[junebuggena]

How many chicks would fit under one heating pad? Assuming the size the OP uses, 12x24 inches, but on a tunnel that will make it something more like 12x18 or 12x12..... if I'm raising 60 chicks, how many heating pads will I need?

Multiple heating pads in one brooder don't seem to work out well. The chicks all try to crowd under the same pad, ignoring the other empty ones. Probably divide them into groups of about 20, each group in their own brooder, with their own pad.

 

[Beekissed]

How many chicks would fit under one heating pad? Assuming the size the OP uses, 12x24 inches, but on a tunnel that will make it something more like 12x18 or 12x12..... if I'm raising 60 chicks, how many heating pads will I need?

Unless you are planning on doing this quite often, I'd not bother to spend the money it would take to buy enough HPs to make that work for that many chicks unless you are really determined to use the HPs. Probably more economical and feasible to just use a heat lamp for that many birds if this is just a one time event.