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

[duluthralphie]

Murphy....

First why did you make that stupid law that always hits me? (Murphy's law)

I hate to agree with others here, because I am a contrary ornery old coot, but I do not understand why you want the dog crate either.

As far as combining flocks it can go good or it can go bad, I have a rooster, (Yes, I said rooster) that makes it go easy. I move my chicks and poults into a tractor right in the middle of the chickens free ranging area, about 10 feet from their waterer. My Wife and I also do Chicken TV time there also. In a week the chickens just forget the chicks were not always there.

We let the chicks out to free range during the Chicken TV time first then all day long. Before you know it they are all one flock.


The rooster takes the chicks under his wing, no one dare touch his chicks. He will protect them all day long.

Here is a picture of Ed protecting newly released chicks. If you blow up the picture you should see a chick on Ed's back and sitting right next to him. He will sit with the chicks for days to make sure they are not attacked by other birds.






Since the picture was taken I have refined the tractor design, but they are made of junk wood so they are not all that pretty. Also my wife made me clean up my scrap iron pile. I know that is unreasonable, but she is the daughter of the wicked witch of the south so I dared not defy her.

 

[duluthralphie]

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

I would but I am having trouble buying the anti tank bazookas needed to bring them down, my dealer was caught bringing new ones in from Syria.

 

[Blooie]

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

This might help you. It's what I do from their first day out until they are totally integrated with the adults, usually by around 4 weeks. Yep, weeks.
.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/yes-you-certainly-can-brood-chicks-outdoors

As for food, put the adults AND the chicks on an All Flock or on Starter/Grower. Then you're only buying one bag of food, period. You can provide oyster shell for the adult layers and they'll take what they need.

 

[poodlechicks]

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.....

Hahahahah, I'll take note of that

 

[10AcreChick]

Blooie, I read your article you put a link to above. Did you have the chicks fully integrated and FREE RANGING by 4 weeks, or just in the Bigs run? I have 2 1/2 week olds in a coop brooder. My Bigs are free range. The chicks have their own run they can go out in, which they haven't had the nerve to do yet. I like the idea of putting a "chick hole" in my brooder so they can mix with the Bigs, but still get away if they need to, but am worried about doing that due to the fact that they would be free ranging then and I have two cats. How old do you think they would need to be to sufficiently be able to defend themselves against the Bigs and the cats (which are about 5 months old but outdoors) or find shelter when a bird is overhead? I don't want to regret letting them out!

 

[duluthralphie]

Blooie, I read your article you put a link to above. Did you have the chicks fully integrated and FREE RANGING by 4 weeks, or just in the Bigs run? I have 2 1/2 week olds in a coop brooder. My Bigs are free range. The chicks have their own run they can go out in, which they haven't had the nerve to do yet. I like the idea of putting a "chick hole" in my brooder so they can mix with the Bigs, but still get away if they need to, but am worried about doing that due to the fact that they would be free ranging then and I have two cats. How old do you think they would need to be to sufficiently be able to defend themselves against the Bigs and the cats (which are about 5 months old but outdoors) or find shelter when a bird is overhead? I don't want to regret letting them out!

I know you asked Blooie, but watch me jump right in front of her in line to answer you....

I have all of mine free ranging by 4 weeks. If the weather permits. I use the brooder/tractor I described above, I have various size door inserts I use so the chicks can get in to the chick starter and the hens cannot. Of course, as the chicks get bigger and the door insert gets bigger the smaller hens can get in, and do.

I am setting up brooders again for the chicks outdoors to get them into my flock. It is not that cold anymore. It might get down to 20 degrees or so, but a 4 week old chick can handle that.

As far as your cats go, only you will know if they would attack a chick or not.

 

[Beekissed]

Blooie, I read your article you put a link to above. Did you have the chicks fully integrated and FREE RANGING by 4 weeks, or just in the Bigs run? I have 2 1/2 week olds in a coop brooder. My Bigs are free range. The chicks have their own run they can go out in, which they haven't had the nerve to do yet. I like the idea of putting a "chick hole" in my brooder so they can mix with the Bigs, but still get away if they need to, but am worried about doing that due to the fact that they would be free ranging then and I have two cats. How old do you think they would need to be to sufficiently be able to defend themselves against the Bigs and the cats (which are about 5 months old but outdoors) or find shelter when a bird is overhead? I don't want to regret letting them out!

I'll jump in too. I have mine fully integrated and ranging with the free range flock by 2 wks, though they can still duck into their hay bale brooder and under the HP brooder when they need to and for night times if it's still cold out. If not cold out the brooder bales are removed and they just use the HP if necessary....usually by then, in hot weather, they use each other's body heat instead and snuggle into the bedding in a corner. They are eating with the bigs at 2-3 wks. Free ranging makes it all much more simple as the chicks can easily avoid the larger birds and the big birds are out on range all day until supper and then again later for roosting.

The earlier you get them out, the earlier they adapt to free range living and the flock's calls to duck and cover. The cats can be trained not to see the chicks as prey, you just need to correct them when they show that kind of interest in the chicks. I've trained young and older cats on chicks with just one or two corrections and never had a problem. The chicks will usually hang right next to the coop when you first let them out on range and won't wander far until they feel more able to avoid predators. Having some good duck and cover next to the coop helps them to adapt as well.

 

[10AcreChick]

Thank you all for the replies! I am just one worried mama hen! My coop is its own duck and cover, as it is about a foot off the ground. The integration is something I will definitely initiate on a weekend, when I can "smack" the cats if they get too close. I am excited to have these integrated with the Bigs a lot sooner than my last batch. I guess I just need to remember some important things to make sure I don't make any huge mistakes. Some things I have thought of while sitting here at work and wanting to be home playing: The big community water bowls underneath my hydrants that I don't want to find a chick drowned in! The new 5 Gallon Jug waterer (courtesy of Sally Sunshine, thanks, sally!) I just made and put in the coop so the hens will be hydrated (and get ACV) just in case DH or DS forgets to put them out for the day, a chick could EASILY drown in it! And also the fact that we live pretty close to the county road that people like bats out of hell on!

I know, I know, I sound like a broody in a pet shop. But I am suffering from PTSD; when I put my first successful hatching of 7 out in their brooder/run with a heat lamp a year ago (oh, how we have grown), I foolishly thought that plastic green fencing would keep predators out! Lost all but two.

When the chicks show interest in going down their ramp into their own little 3 x 5 run, I guess I'll start thinking about integrating. I'll let them decide!

 

[Beekissed]

A hanging nipple bucket works great for chicks and I use them from day one but they learn easily enough later on...except for some of my adult birds. They acted like that was rocket science and couldn't grasp it for the world.

Here's a pic of some chicks drinking from a nipple bucket in the coop. You can position your other waterers far enough away from the coop so that the little ones won't be tempted to use them....my big water pan is about 40 yds from the coop.

This one in the pic has vertical nipples underneath the bucket for the young birds and a side nipple cup for the older birds if they are so inclined. This makes a nice nipple bucket setup if you have a broody hen and chicks penned together.




If you have a trough style feeder the littles can eat freely next to the bigs and there seems to be very little problem with this at my place.

 

[rcstanley]

So my chicks have been happily outside with mama heating pad for about a week in my grow out coop. Two days ago, I got 2 more chicks to replace the ones I lost and put them out as well. They are the same age as my other chicks, but the new chicks have been under a heat lamp. It was interesting seeing the difference. I went out in the morning, it was in the upper 30s. The chicks that had been raised on mhp were bouncing around wanting me to open the coop door so they could go out. The two new chicks were under the heating pad wondering where their life went wrong

Hopefully the new ones will get used to things soon. (They were a lot happier in the afternoon when it got up in the 70s in coop.) Its supposed to get up in the 60s and 70s this weekend, so I think they be happier.