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

[aart]

The brooder is all set up for the chicks! All that is needed now is the pine shavings and the baby chicks. The feed area will stay paper towels for maintenance reasons. I will post a picture of the frame to see if that is acceptable as well. SO EXCITED to use the mama heating pad system! I also love the side door on the crate, as it will allow me to interact with the chicks more. I am hoping to have a strong bond with these little peepers, as the last ones were not as socialized.

Not sure the itty bitties will be able to get into the 'feed box'?
Might want to take off or shorten the side near the middle of the crate for easier access.

 

[BrownieBrood]

I just wanted to share our MHP setup, girls are a week old now and feathering nicely. We've had it arranged a few different ways, I accidentally ordered the extra long heating pad so there is some over hang. Have the cloth cover wrapped in good old press n seal. For the 1st few days I had the woven straw insert from their shipping box on top. I called it straw mama because they were so attached to it, but then they lost interest in it, Started out by using a dish towel cover but got icked out when it came time for washing so switched to paper towels. It had a paper towel 'curtain', but they kept knocking it down, so took it out.

I should have taken a photo- but the cave frame is one of those flat metal paint tray inserts- to scrape your roller on. I added a leg to lengthen one side- used piece of wire hanger, used duct tape to bumper the edges and bent to shape.

Thanks again for sharing this idea!

 

[azygous]

Not sure the itty bitties will be able to get into the 'feed box'?
Might want to take off or shorten the side near the middle of the crate for easier access.

Aart is right. The pic was so small, I didn't notice that! My babies are just two weeks today, and up to this point, they haven't had the wing feathers to assist in getting "lift" when they try to hop up onto something. I solved the problem by setting a scrap of 2x4 against whatever they needed to access. They can hop onto the 2x4 easily with just their wing stubs. But you will need to put a 2x4 on the inside of your feed box, too, so they can get back out.

 

[Blooie]

I just wanted to share our MHP setup, girls are a week old now and feathering nicely. We've had it arranged a few different ways, I accidentally ordered the extra long heating pad so there is some over hang. Have the cloth cover wrapped in good old press n seal. For the 1st few days I had the woven straw insert from their shipping box on top. I called it straw mama because they were so attached to it, but then they lost interest in it, Started out by using a dish towel cover but got icked out when it came time for washing so switched to paper towels. It had a paper towel 'curtain', but they kept knocking it down, so took it out.

I should have taken a photo- but the cave frame is one of those flat metal paint tray inserts- to scrape your roller on. I added a leg to lengthen one side- used piece of wire hanger, used duct tape to bumper the edges and bent to shape.

Thanks again for sharing this idea!

Very clever! And you won't regret having the longer heating pad someday, I promise! You'll be able to set up your cave with no problem when chicken math sneaks up on you and you suddenly have a lot of chicks in one order! With the addition of a longer frame to accommodate the longer heating pad and a larger brooder, and you're all set!! I thought I'd get a dozen chicks this year. One died the day we got them (just weak from shipping stress or not a thrifty chick from the start). After they went outside I thought, "I need to replace that little Light Brahma, and see if they have any different patterns of EE chicks." Came home with 4 more. Chick raising went so smoothly with this system that suddenly I had no more babies! They were little chickens! I hadn't gotten Spring chick fever out of my system yet, and I really wanted Buff Brahmas, so I evicted the first 15 and got 8 more. Yep, chicken math. But if I'd had the extra long pad that you got, I could have ordered that many in the first place and handled that many very easily!

So happy that you like the system! Welcome to the Human Broody Hen club!

@BarredCometLaced I didn't notice that either. Good call, aart and azygous!

 

[Grimm]

This is my first bunch of chicks with the heating pad and my husband and I are in shock at how much our girls are thriving. They are 2 weeks yesterday and they have almost fully feathered wings and tails. They are trying to fly around the brooder so I am glad we made it tall. I'll be putting the roost in there soon. They might go out to the coop in the next 2-3 weeks!

Frou Frou is doing much better as well. This morning I fed and watered the chicks and took her out of the brooder to flush her eye and the swelling was gone! Her eye was more open and there was minimal weeping compared to the past few days. I still groomed the down around it away from the eye and applied the ointment as I did the past few days. You guys are great for all your advice.

 

[Blooie]

Awesome progress on the eye! And may I safely assume that hubby is over the "they need a light" stage? (um, that was your hubby, right, not just mine?)

 

[Grimm]

My husband actually trusted me when I switched from the light to the ceramic heat bulb then to the heating pad. I just had to take his advice when he wanted to move the brooder after our first group of chicks. It was in the house and he wanted to move it to the basement. So I have a light in there set to the same time as sunrise and sunset but it is not a heat bulb. Our coop is not big enough for the brooder so my DH is building me a bigger one so I can have a brooder in there I can also use when one of the hens is being a bully.

 

[Blooie]

Ah, I see. I thought there was someone on here whose hubby was against this whole premise and wasn't happy about no heat lamp, but that might have been on another thread where we were discussing this.

 

[segeine]

It's my hubby that freaked out at the MHP system, and has come around since we started with it. He mentioned just a few minutes ago about how much more feathered they were than the batch last year, and I explained that the folks on this thread had mentioned that the chicks did that with the MHP, and why that probably was. We're both much happier they are not in the dog crate anymore, but we'll have to graduate to bigger quarters SOON!!!
--Segeine

 

[CoopedUpChicken]

Loved your post! It was funny - 1/2 my girls had an eco brooder heater and 1/2 my girls had a heat lamp. The ones under the red heat lamp, when I first put them outside, panicked when it got dark out! They are used to the dark now, but it took a night or two before they would settle down and look forward to sundown.