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

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sierranomad said:
This may be a little OT, but I think it goes along with the thinking of this thread...and I'd like some feedback from those with a bit of experience in raising chicks.

I hope I'm not being callous. My 3 week old chicks spent their first night out last night. It got down to 48*. I had put the heat lamp out, and it kept it to 65* in the immediate vicinity of the lamp. They have a lot of feathers, so I was more concerned about raccoons than the weather (even though the coop could withstand an atomic bomb and keep standing).

I just went out to check on the chicks. They aren't even near the heat lamp, but have chosen to bury themselves in the deep litter, under a raised board I set up to put their food on. They came out of thier improvised "Mama Heating Pad" when they saw my flashlight, but didn't show any signs of distress. Though I'm not sure that I would recognise signs of distress. But they started chirping, seemingly happily.

Am I being callous? Am I missing signs of distress? Being away from the heat lamp, they were in 48* weather with only each others body heat to keep them warm.

P.S. Since they were already up, I turned the outside light on and just now went out to check on them. They are all out of their nest, eating and drinking and seem to me be acting normally (for a chicken, anyway).

UPDATE: It is 2 1/2 hours later and is now light out. Just checked on the chicks again and they act like everything is normal. I gave them an earthworm and they went nuts. I have come to the conclusion that the rule of lessening their heating by 5* every week is not always the case. Maybe my breed is more hardy (Production Reds), I don't know. This conclusions seems in harmony with a comment Blooie made that, while chicks need care, they are not the delicate little things that they are made out to be. If someone with experience disagrees with this conclusion, please I won't be offended. I am brand new to chicks (since I was a kid anyway) and want to learn.
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Not callous just observant. they were in the deep litter keeping each other warm. and it was enough. Protection against the elements and predators is the min need in most cases. I think each case is different .... There are quiate a few here at BYC that believe in survival of the fittest. Sort of natural selection for the most roebust and the most thrifty with feed, its the way to develop your own flocks to be hale and hearty.

Aside from raising up with a broody hen this is as close to it as we humans can get. Guinea Keets are known to be Delicate in the first couple of weeks.... Aside from loosing some to eating shavings I pretty much disagree. but that's me I dont go on the Guinea threads any more.

deb
 
sierranomad said:
This may be a little OT, but I think it goes along with the thinking of this thread...and I'd like some feedback from those with a bit of experience in raising chicks.

.........

P.S. Since they were already up, I turned the outside light on and just now went out to check on them. They are all out of their nest, eating and drinking and seem to me be acting normally (for a chicken, anyway).

UPDATE: It is 2 1/2 hours later and is now light out. Just checked on the chicks again and they act like everything is normal. I gave them an earthworm and they went nuts. I have come to the conclusion that the rule of lessening their heating by 5* every week is not always the case. Maybe my breed is more hardy (Production Reds), I don't know. This conclusions seems in harmony with a comment Blooie made that, while chicks need care, they are not the delicate little things that they are made out to be. If someone with experience disagrees with this conclusion, please I won't be offended. I am brand new to chicks (since I was a kid anyway) and want to learn.
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More like rarely, if ever, the case..another inaccurate rule of thumb.

I learned a lot about chick hardiness when a let a broody hatch out chicks this winter.
Those chicks were out of the nest bopping around at down to -12F temps...they weren't out for long, but still.
 
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Absolutely watching your chicks is the best gauge of how they are doing and what they need. I doubt seriously if anyone sits a broody down and gives her a schedule of when to turn her heat down. I think we've grown accustomed to having everything laid out for us in neat little step by step directions, and that's not just true of chicken care. Case in point? How about directions on the back of a package for how to "iinstall" a door stop. <sigh>

 
Ok, I'm trying it again. The thermometer is reading 90 tonight. I shut off the heat lamp this morning, so the heating pad has been their only source of heat all day. When I got home from work they weren't even near it and were running all over the coop and acting normal. So now they are in the dark with just the cave and each other for warmth. Luckily, they are mostly feathered at this point.
 
Vian said:
Ok, so I tried this lastnight. I bought a heating pad without auto-off on amazon, built a framework to form a cave, covered it with a towel. I put it in the coop with my 3 week old chicks and they were kind of afraid of it. I left it in there with the heat lamp still on for an hour or so for them to kind of get used to it, then I shut the heat lamp off. I stuck a thermometer under the heating pad and it was reading 95 degrees in the cave, so I thought it was good to go. Well, this morning I went to check on them and all the chicks are huddled under the heating pad cave and the thermometer is reading 75 under there. I'm afraid that's too cold for them at this age, so I removed the cave and turned the heat lamp back on. I guess my heating pad doesn't get hot enough for how cold it's getting at night to keep the temp up.
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I might not have this right, but don't you want the heating pad with the 'auto off' feature, so you can prevent the heating pad from turning itself off, and so it maintains a steady temperature?
I wonder if your heating pad is shutting itself off intermittently, and that is why your temps are fluctuating so much.
 
lynnehd said:
I might not have this right, but don't you want the heating pad with the 'auto off' feature, so you can prevent the heating pad from turning itself off, and so it maintains a steady temperature?
I wonder if your heating pad is shutting itself off intermittently, and that is why your temps are fluctuating so much.
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Actually you don't want the auto-shut off. It's kinda just semantics - what you really want is the "auto shut off shut off" feature!
lau.gif
Most heating pads shut themselves off after 2 hours. With the one I recommend, there is a switch that lets you turn off the auto shut off, so the pad stays on continuously.
 
Blooie said:
Quote: @thegreatwhite I'd be careful with using multiple digital devices that weren't made to work together.

I remember a warning against using a rhesostatic dimmer extension cord with a digital heating pad by someone well versed in electronics....
......they said it could blow the digital electronics.
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