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

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
I plan on having my recliner out in the coop.... heat dont other me. Cooler for "beverages" just chilling out.

 

[Blooie]

Blooie is Da Bomb.
deb

Yep, Blooie often "bombs"! But thanks, Deb! Since you knew me when I first started this chicken journey, you know how hard it was for the control freak in me to let go, let God, and let the chickens be chickens!

Sounds easy enough. I can't wait to try!

You know, it's the very easiness of this that makes people the most nervous. It is hard to imagine that so little time and work can result in a great flock and a great chick raising experience....feels like something is missing if it isn't hard!

 

[eagrbeavr]

Blooie you're right. This is like going from cooking on the stove to using a crock pot. Its pretty much 'set it and forget it' I havent been getting a sense of nervousness per say, but I know what you mean. For me its more of realizing something that should've been so obvious!

One thing I'd like to add, is if you're doing this outside, remember they still need ventilation. I bring this up from a mistake I almost made. My brooder is on my covered deck. We've been having some 'chance of rain' and foggy, misty days here, and for a few hours I put a vinyl tablecloth over them, since I didnt want the shavings and everything inside getting wet. A few hours later I happened to check, and the brooder was getting warm. Holy cr*p. All that near 100% humidity almost trapped in there, and hot it time. Ventilation, ventilation, ventilation.

 

[duluthralphie]

Do you adjust for size as they grow?

Yes,, what Blooie said...







PS, while the thread seems friendly and all, just knowing disagreeing with Blooie can get you in BIG trouble.....Of course that's just what I was told.....

 

[Blooie]

Ralphie, turn in your Press 'n' Seal. Shame on you, trying to scare off new folks by threatening them with me. :/ :/:/:/

 

[Murphy212]

Thanks so much for the information in this extremely long thread lol.....I just love this concept and plan to do this very thing in the next week or so to add to my flock. I have only a couple of questions that I must have missed the answers to. First, I plan to build a brooder box, place it in my coop run, and put the littles out there after a week or two on my covered back porch in a dog crate. I am going to place the dog crate in the brooder box and as they grow let them have more space but access to the MHP set up. Other than protection from weather, predators, and the Bigs in the flock, am I missing something? Can the littles and their MHP be put outside in a brooder box until they are old enough to integrate into the bigs flock?
Second question is when the two flocks are combined, how do you keep the littles on starter feed from the bigs who are on layer pellets? In other words how do you set up their feed stations? Or does it even matter?

For background info, I have 8 Bigs who are almost 3 years old. In April 2013, I started with 11 baby chicks and raised them in a deck box on my enclosed front porch until they could be moved to a coop. I have only lost 3 chickens in the past 3 years, and all after they were grown and laying. One to crop problem, one to fly strike, and one just don't know what happened to her. (found dead under coop one morning).
They sleep in a 8x6 coop, spend their days in a 17'x24' run, and have an extensive fenced in larger run.
Thanks for any help.
Murphy

 

[lazy gardener]

I used 2 heavy metal baskets I bought at Dollarama. Zip tied them together and voila! Perfect geodesic chicken cave. As they got bigger they wanted to sleep on top though and huge fights would break out at night so today I replaced it with a 24" shelf 6 inches off the ground. Put the heating pad back on with a towel so everyone should fit on top and have warm feets all night long.
I left the geodesic cave in their house without a heating pad since it makes a great chicken play structure.

I hope you have those baskets covered both top and bottom. That looks like a perfect set up for chick suicide. I don't want to rain on your parade, but would hate to see an accident.

Thanks so much for the information in this extremely long thread lol.....I just love this concept and plan to do this very thing in the next week or so to add to my flock. I have only a couple of questions that I must have missed the answers to. First, I plan to build a brooder box, place it in my coop run, and put the littles out there after a week or two on my covered back porch in a dog crate. I am going to place the dog crate in the brooder box and as they grow let them have more space but access to the MHP set up. Other than protection from weather, predators, and the Bigs in the flock, am I missing something? Can the littles and their MHP be put outside in a brooder box until they are old enough to integrate into the bigs flock?
Second question is when the two flocks are combined, how do you keep the littles on starter feed from the bigs who are on layer pellets? In other words how do you set up their feed stations? Or does it even matter?

For background info, I have 8 Bigs who are almost 3 years old. In April 2013, I started with 11 baby chicks and raised them in a deck box on my enclosed front porch until they could be moved to a coop. I have only lost 3 chickens in the past 3 years, and all after they were grown and laying. One to crop problem, one to fly strike, and one just don't know what happened to her. (found dead under coop one morning).
They sleep in a 8x6 coop, spend their days in a 17'x24' run, and have an extensive fenced in larger run.
Thanks for any help.
Murphy

Murphy, I'm wondering why you have a brooder box with a dog crate inside? I'm thinking that you could remove the dog crate all together? How many chicks, and how big is the biggest of these 2 containers? If your brooder box is predator proof (no openings greater than 1/2") , it could go out into the run or yard, if you can keep the weather off it. IMO, when it comes to integration, one of the keys that sometimes gets overlooked in the excitement of starting new chicks is this: integration requires more room than the standard 4 s.f./bird in the coop. It's so easy to look at the coop, and see plenty of room, and those littles are still pretty tiny. But in the eyes of the flock, those littles are encroaching on their territory. As far as food, I like to transition my flock to multi-flock during breeding or chick season. Then, I can keep them on that year round (providing calcium on the side) or transition back to layer when the littles approach POL.

 

[bruceha2000]

Yep, Blooie often "bombs"! But thanks, Deb! Since you knew me when I first started this chicken journey, you know how hard it was for the control freak in me to let go, let God, and let the chickens be chickens!

You know, it's the very easiness of this that makes people the most nervous. It is hard to imagine that so little time and work can result in a great flock and a great chick raising experience....feels like something is missing if it isn't hard!

Yep! Too easy, CAN'T be right!!

PS, while the thread seems friendly and all, just knowing disagreeing with Blooie can get you in BIG trouble.....Of course that's just what I was told.....

Clearly your informants are unreliable, they must have some ulterior motive or will say anything when subjected to a "good cop/bad cop" (*) interrogation. I have "known" Blooie since she joined BYC 2 years ago, she is a sweetie with a great sense of humor. Just don't make her wait for hours in a hospital bed with instructions for "no food until I see her in the morning".

(And I know you were joking Ralphie

)

* Or, as a Deputy Chief I know joked when I asked if he was the good or bad cop, he said "We don't do good cop/bad cop, we do bad cop/WORSE cop"

Thanks so much for the information in this extremely long thread lol.....I just love this concept and plan to do this very thing in the next week or so to add to my flock. I have only a couple of questions that I must have missed the answers to. First, I plan to build a brooder box, place it in my coop run, and put the littles out there after a week or two on my covered back porch in a dog crate. I am going to place the dog crate in the brooder box and as they grow let them have more space but access to the MHP set up. Other than protection from weather, predators, and the Bigs in the flock, am I missing something? Can the littles and their MHP be put outside in a brooder box until they are old enough to integrate into the bigs flock?
Second question is when the two flocks are combined, how do you keep the littles on starter feed from the bigs who are on layer pellets? In other words how do you set up their feed stations? Or does it even matter?

For background info, I have 8 Bigs who are almost 3 years old. In April 2013, I started with 11 baby chicks and raised them in a deck box on my enclosed front porch until they could be moved to a coop. I have only lost 3 chickens in the past 3 years, and all after they were grown and laying. One to crop problem, one to fly strike, and one just don't know what happened to her. (found dead under coop one morning).
They sleep in a 8x6 coop, spend their days in a 17'x24' run, and have an extensive fenced in larger run.
Thanks for any help.
Murphy

Not sure why you want to move the dog crate into the brooder box if the box is secure from the older girls. I would just move the MHP and chicks into it. You can put the MHP out in the brooder box in the coop from day one. Read back and see where Blooie had day olds outside in sub freezing temps. The littles will have no use for the MHP by 4 weeks when they are fully feathered. At that point they are usually ready for sleeping at night on elevated roosts. But integration with the older girls is a bit different without a broody protecting them. Zorra decided which of the other 9 adults were allowed anywhere near "her" chicks and that number was 2. You will find a description and pictures of "portals" in an "in coop" brooder pen that allows the chicks to stay/get away from the adults while the pecking order is figured out.

With regard to the layer vs starter food. Don't worry about it. My 7 chicks from Meyer last June were raised by a broody in a wire brooder "box" in the coop. They had their food and water inside. Once the broody moved them to a nest box one night when they were about 2 weeks old (I think she got tired of waiting for me to let them out in the morning, the coop has an auto door that let the older girls out at daybreak) I made an opening in the brooder wire so the chicks could get to their food and water. It wasn't too long before they were just eating from the older girls' layer feeder. I think at least half the 10 pound bag got dumped into the 10 gallon layer feed can.

 

[duluthralphie]

Ralphie, turn in your Press 'n' Seal. Shame on you, trying to scare off new folks by threatening them with me.

Oh no you misread me, I was not trying to scare them off....

I was just repeating the rumor I heard. We all know I never just make stuff up like some on here do. Just ask anyone.


It is lonely here this morning, just me and my coffee, I moved my Dining room flock outside to the shed yesterday. I miss their chirping.

 

[bruceha2000]

Oh no you misread me, I was not trying to scare them off....

I was just repeating the rumor I heard. We all know I never just make stuff up like some on here do. Just ask anyone.


It is lonely here this morning, just me and my coffee, I moved my Dining room flock outside to the shed yesterday. I miss their chirping.

Perhaps you need to go out and hunt some more of those mouseasaurses to keep busy.