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

[aart]

Hi, I've been subbed for a while. I'm not sure the best place to post but as this is the method of brooding we are going to use when we hatch, I thought I'd post here

What is your experience with the mama brooder and bedding? Is there anything with heat retention, or chick behavior? Does it even matter?

The reason I ask is, when we were at the feed store recently pricing supplies, I asked where the pine pellets were, thinking we would use them when the chicks got older. I'd also heard of people using them with paper towels over the top to protect little feet. I had used them before keeping small mammals and found they reduced odor and dust significantly. Anyway, the feed store assistant, bless her, asked me what we needed them for, I tried to explain and she just about lost her mind when I told her what I intended. She kept saying that chicks eat everything, that they would eat the pine pellets, the paper towels, the pine shavings (yet pine shavings are ok to ingest? The feed store were using them in the tanks with glass bottoms and I noticed more than a few chicks with spraddle leg. It wasn't exactly inspiring confidence) It was a bit bewildering because having kept chicks before I know they very quickly figure out what is food and what isn't, and I'd never had a chick eat paper towels before.

I guess I'm just left feeling a bit bewildered by the whole experience - have I missed something important since I last kept chicks? If I have please let me know. Also let me know if you've found one type of bedding better than others with the mama heating pad brooder. Happy to tweak the plans so that we're ready when they hatch. Many thanks!

Subbed?

Well, at least you learned not to ask that person anything anymore!
Maybe you knew that.....doesn't 'bless her heart' basically mean 'she is an idiot' in southernese?

 

[debid]

Subbed?

Well, at least you learned not to ask that person anything anymore! 
Maybe you knew that.....doesn't 'bless her heart' basically mean 'she is an idiot' in southernese?  

It does! The more syrupy you say it, the more insulting it's meant to be.

I've heard some genuinely horrible advice at pet stores enough times that I wouldn't dream of my only point of reference being a clerk in a farm store. They are just people with opinions, varied experience levels, and sometimes misinformation.

It's also true that some animals have a problem with things others don't. If a chick eats bedding until it dies from impaction, you may be inclined to raise chicks on anything but that next time. Say you switch to wire afterward and tell others of the dangers of bedding. In reverse, someone who raises on wire has a chick that loses toes to frostbite may warn of the dangers of wire.

I doubt there is any method guaranteed to produce perfect results every time (there's always that one chick too stupid for it's own good) but there are people here using pellets without issue.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote: LOL what works for you is what is best. There is only one bedding I DONt recomend and that is the Aeromatic Cedar shavings.... But... not all Cedar is poisonous to chickens....

IN your original post you asked about heat retention... Lots of people sucessfully use Sand. Others use Grass hay... I have used pine shavings. In future I will use a combo of sand and wire if I were brooding in the house. Sand in under the brooding area wire under feed and water... ... That is After they are a couple of days old. till then shelf liner over the wire.

If I brood in the coop which is most likely it will be the same setup with the exception of having their own little pop door to go out in a larger area.

deb

 

[Beekissed]

I'm wondering why more folks don't just natural bedding for chicks? Things like dried grasses, leaves, yard rakings, etc. It's free, it's what they've be living on if their mama was hatching them and brooding them on the land and it doesn't hold any dangers for chicks. I figure folks in the desert climes may have trouble coming up with such things or maybe they too have dried grasses of some kind they can access?

I never did get the whole controversy in bedding materials for chicks...it's as easy as looking to see what they would be raised on if their mama was doing it and if they had access to the big ol' outdoors...then going out there and getting some of it. If it's too wet, dry it out prior to the chick delivery, but unless you've got a pristinely manicured lawn or land out there, there's bound to be dead plant matter to access for a brooder. It's sort of along the lines of giving them a clump of sod in their brooder...it gives them access to the environmental molds and pathogens in their future environment, right when they need the exposure.

 

[Blooie]

I'm wondering why more folks don't just natural bedding for chicks? Things like dried grasses, leaves, yard rakings, etc. It's free, it's what they've be living on if their mama was hatching them and brooding them on the land and it doesn't hold any dangers for chicks. I figure folks in the desert climes may have trouble coming up with such things or maybe they too have dried grasses of some kind they can access?

I never did get the whole controversy in bedding materials for chicks...it's as easy as looking to see what they would be raised on if their mama was doing it and if they had access to the big ol' outdoors...then going out there and getting some of it. If it's too wet, dry it out prior to the chick delivery, but unless you've got a pristinely manicured lawn or land out there, there's bound to be dead plant matter to access for a brooder. It's sort of along the lines of giving them a clump of sod in their brooder...it gives them access to the environmental molds and pathogens in their future environment, right when they need the exposure.

Thank you!! I should have said that, Bee......doggone it! I only used large pine flakes because I had like 2 bales left over from when I was trying to do deep litter in the coop and the run (Duh, Blooie!) Once I started brooding them outdoors they were on the same litter that the adults were on, with the addition of the straw just for added insulation against our teens and twenties! I gotta admit it did save their hineys when we had that power outage during the snowstorm - kept their cave warm enough until we got out there to reset the pad - but boy, did they ever love a fresh bag of dried leaves dumped in there.

I have a bad habit of focusing on one aspect of a question instead of pointing out an entirely different option. So glad you've got my back!

In my defense, this time of year when people are getting new chicks for the first time, they often have more ready access to commercial products than natural ones. They aren't likely to have been able to accumulate a nice collection of dried grasses and leaves from under the snow. So using pine shavings or the like is a more viable alternative for some during the winter and early spring months.

 

[Beekissed]

True that...most folks don't seem to plan ahead for their chicks at all. A lot don't even have a coop when they purchase their chicks!

 

[debid]

True that...most folks don't seem to plan ahead for their chicks at all.  A lot don't even have a coop when they purchase their chicks! 

And they don't seem to consider that they will want to spend their time watching the little fluffs rather than building. I know my parents did this and I was floored because they never let us get a pet without a trip to the library to research proper care first! But, the farm store bins full of cuteness inspire many impulse purchases.

 

[Blooie]

True that...most folks don't seem to plan ahead for their chicks at all. A lot don't even have a coop when they purchase their chicks!

Gee, can you imagine anyone (Blooie) getting chicks (Blooie) without having all the stuff needed (Blooie) and before even deciding where (Blooie) or how to build a coop? (BLOOIE)

 

[Beekissed]

This is true...and very sad. I was looking at the chicks in our local Rural King last year and an older man and woman were going to buy some chicks but they didn't know what the breeds were and what they should buy. Said they had some last year but they all died or were taken by predators so they were just there to get more, but didn't know what kind to get this time. I guess chickens have become the new disposable animal and the feed stores are the legal puppy mills for them.

 

[debid]

This is true...and very sad.  I was looking at the chicks in our local Rural King last year and an older man and woman were going to buy some chicks but they didn't know what the breeds were and what they should buy.  Said they had some last year but they all died or were taken by predators so they were just there to get more, but didn't know what kind to get this time.  I guess chickens have become the new disposable animal and the feed stores are the legal puppy mills for them. 

It's hardly new, though. My husband told me his family used to get ducks every year at Easter and watch them play in a wading pool. I don't think a single one made it to adulthood.