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

[duluthralphie]

Touche!!!

Well, at least you and I see to understand little chicks are like lemmings with a major drive to commit suicide. If one finds a way 10 more will try the same way. Good thing we have no cliffs around here.

 

[Melschen]

So... our first chicks are en route and scheduled to arrive tomorrow or Thursday. I'm so excited (and nervous)! I think I have everything set up and ready. We're brooding them in the coop. We live in West Central Florida and the temperatures at night have been around 60 (except for yesterday). What do you think? Anything I'm missing? Does it look right? We have 15 chicks coming and I'm using one 12x24 sunbeam pad.

 

[GardenNut]

I think I'm all set up!

 

[GardenNut]

A spare bedroom is now an office, seed starting room and chick nursery!

 

[AlHawk]

This is the converted dog cage I used for my second batch of 1 day old chicks (RIR/BR). I put cardboard on the bottom and 3" up the sides. I woke up to a RIR chick-sickle. SOMEHOW she got out and I felt HORRIBLE.

I moved them all into one of these (without the lid) for 5 days then moved them back. I've been highly impressed with the spaces they can get into/through.

 

[COChix]

Show him this: This is Turtles. He had to FLY up there, then squeak out through the bars in the dog pen. Yeah. And it was high! I kept going out and finding him running frantically outside the pen trying to get back in. The hardware cloth at the bottom of this dog crate was for Scout. This is the same way we did the larger xpen for the subsequent chicks too.

Thanks! Those darn little buggers.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Mine were also constantly spilling all their food. Ihad one of those chick troughs with the holes then switched to a tupperware container but they still knocked it over. Eventually i figured something out. But then also i would put it on bricks which worked at first until they got bigger and started flying.up and landing on it and tipping it over that way because they were getting heavy. Litle buggers is right lol

 

[bruceha2000]

Quote:
That is very true! I think it was the second winter with our June 2012 chicks that my wife and I were counting the girls in the pretty dark coop (from the outside) to make sure they had all gotten in before the auto door had closed) and could not count past 11 from the front or either side of the coop. Couldn't find a chicken outside the coop either. I finally went in and discovered that Peep, a Cubalaya, was so far under one of the other girls only her head was sticking out. I don't recall which girl she was "under" but since none of them had ever raised chicks it seemed pretty odd that Peep wasn't shoved out.

Quote:

Quote:
Originally Posted by aart

Tacked a chunk of 1x up there to reduce size of door from 5.5" to 4".......
then baited them all with some BOSS, looked pretty secure so left some BOSS on floor.
Came back an hour or so later and BOSS bait still there.
Rebaited them and watched a few try to shove thru...HA! no dice baby!!

So set up partition coop to test a couple layers(got some funky eggs, need to find out who),
before the chicks reside(hatch due in a week),
and a couple tried getting thru all the chick doors, tried hard and no joy for them.

So this should work, and is adjustable with just a couple easily reached screws.

You couldn't have just slid the door down an inch or 2? Maybe make a hole in the wood for a dowel or even just a nail (lined up with the openings in the hardware cloth) to hold the door in position so it couldn't slide down.

Maybe, I thought about it...but this seemed simpler and was very quickly done, is easily adjusted and best of all ....no funky fasteners that may need to be dinked with.

I like having adjustability where ever possible in any design...and had contemplated all along that it would need width as well as height adjustability Actually think the width is more important than height, why I made the sliders horizontal on the other two 'doors'.

How about a piece of plywood cut with a 90 degree opening on one corner that can slide diagonally so that both the top and one side of the opening can shrink/grow at the same time?

Wish I had a photo of my 8 chicks trying to get under the Buff Orpington broody when they were 5 weeks old! She managed to get them all under her on the roost! I will have to see if I can isolate a frame from the video.

Here she is last week - 6 chicks are under and two on the side

Yes, I guess my statement was a bit too "black and white". 5 of my 7 broody raised chicks headed to the roost by themselves over a couple of days then the broody went up and the other 2 came with her. They did shove under for a couple of days but she put a stop to it I think.

I rearranged the MHP today in preparation for taking the chicks outside. I felt like it wasn't warm enough underneath because of the way I had the mylar wrapped and having the pad on top of the rack instead of directly against the chicks.

So, I started with a wire shelf that was only $3.50 from Walmart since I didn't have extra wire around to make a frame. I ordered online to pick up in store (they weren't in stock at the store). Online it is called 'grey helper shelf' and it was the 'large' size.

Cut a piece of cardboard to fit on top




It sags a little, but not bad. And the chicks can cozy right up against the warm fuzziness.

I would be tempted to get out a strong set of pliers and angle the back pair of legs so the back of the cave will be lower than the front, ~ 2" off the floor.

And that gap in the front looks like a perfect "chick suicide" location, getting trapped between the pad and the rack above, overheating and dying. Just because they can get in doesn't mean they can get out.

So, my chicks are not here this morning. I need to call the guy about my tracking number. I am hoping that the chicks are not sitting down at the post office waiting. I went around to build my MHP last night and I had run out of wire! I am building with a shelf from walmart also, but in a different way.
We bought these shelves when we lived at Fort Polk, because my storage was minimal at best. I have been carting them from duty station to duty station. They stand about 7 inches from the floor, I am hoping this works!!!!


I will post when I finish the project.

7" is WAY too high. You aren't trying to create a heated cave, you are trying to create the underside of a hen that is touching the back of the chicks but that they can adjust their position for more or less contact or none at all.

So... our first chicks are en route and scheduled to arrive tomorrow or Thursday. I'm so excited (and nervous)! I think I have everything set up and ready. We're brooding them in the coop. We live in West Central Florida and the temperatures at night have been around 60 (except for yesterday). What do you think? Anything I'm missing? Does it look right? We have 15 chicks coming and I'm using one 12x24 sunbeam pad.

I would put both the food and water up off the shavings or that is what you will have in both.

Is that a 1 gallon waterer? It is a lot bigger than you need while they are in "brooder" mode. I wouldn't fill it very far because you will be replacing the water frequently as the chicks toss shavings, food and poop in it. A "standard" 1 pint chick waterer is plenty big enough for 15, they don't all drink at the same time (same with a feeder). The chicks will be on top of either within a week.


Given where you live, is there enough ventilation in the coop for the chickens when they are older? Heat will kill a critter with a permanent down coat.

 

[mobius]

Many thanks for all helpful responses to how long to use MHP...chicks are four weeks but I dunno that they are fully feathered: they have been in coop about four days (with MHP) and are adjusting well...first night down to 20F, but no problems whatsoever, first day they explored the run and PUT THEMSELVES TO BED all by themselves without being asked. I was sure I would be on my belly under the coop chasing one down before closing the pop door! Nope! They know where the food and water and MHP are!!








Immediate dustbath in run yesterday, they love the topsoil I put down in the run! Even tho there is a dustbath in the coop!

 

[COChix]

So... our first chicks are en route and scheduled to arrive tomorrow or Thursday. I'm so excited (and nervous)! I think I have everything set up and ready. We're brooding them in the coop. We live in West Central Florida and the temperatures at night have been around 60 (except for yesterday). What do you think? Anything I'm missing? Does it look right? We have 15 chicks coming and I'm using one 12x24 sunbeam pad.

looks good and what a nice brooder set up in your coop. Don't forget to post your Brigade dues when you get the babies.