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

[jaslyman]

Thanks for the quick reply. The tub is about 42"x21", which I assumed was enough for the first week or so given everything I've read about space requirements. But if we need to move them out sooner, that shouldn't be a problem.

 

[junebuggena]

Thanks for the quick reply. The tub is about 42"x21", which I assumed was enough for the first week or so given everything I've read about space requirements. But if we need to move them out sooner, that shouldn't be a problem.

Was that measuring the top or the floor? The tubs narrow at their base, so if you measured the top, you didn't get an accurate measurement of floor space. Then you need to account for the space that the feeder and waterer are taking up. At one week, they need about 1/4 sq ft per chick. Their space needs double, as does their size, each week for the first 6 weeks. Then their growth rate begins to slow. 15 chicks take up a lot of space, very quickly.

 

[Beekissed]

This site, and this thread in particular, has been so incredibly helpful. We are expecting our first ever baby chicks (15 in total) sometime next week, and was hoping to get some feedback on our initial setup. This will be just for the first 1-2 weeks, then I will move them into a bigger brooder (6'x3') in the garage.

We found a spare shelf organizer thingy, which seems like it would work well as a support for the heating pad / towel combo. The thermometer reads 85 with the heating pad set to 6. I'm still a bit unsure about what to use for bedding - I have pine shavings, playsand as well as shelf liner (bumpy and non-bumpy). Seems like the shavings would be good to have in the "nest" under the heating pad - maybe the shelf liner under the food/water?

Anyway, would love to hear if this looks ok to get us and our 15 baby chicks started. Any advice appreciated!

The shelf organizer is ridged and cannot be adjusted downward to meet the level of the chick's backs, so what you will be getting with this setup is radiant heat, which is not what the heating pad system is designed to do. The heating pad must come in contact with the chick's bodies in order to provide enough heat for them. Even if you were to put shavings under your shelf, they would have them kicked out of there post haste and they wouldn't be in contact with the pad.

Locating the water next to the feed is always a mistake, as they will be tracking one into the other, both ways.

As was said, this tub will probably only suffice for a few days before they will need some space, air and more light. This will also be a huge pain to clean out, but that's personal choice.

I think your biggest problem will be the frame of your heating pad and I can't stress enough that it's a contact heater, not a radiant heater.

 

[jaslyman]

I think your biggest problem will be the frame of your heating pad and I can't stress enough that it's a contact heater, not a radiant heater.

Huh... I confess to not reading all 450+ pages of this thread, but everything that I read shows the heating pad lying atop some sort of metal frame, with space for the chicks below it. The temp, as I said, is 85 degrees under the frame, which is consistent with what the original poster had.

 

[azygous]

Don't confuse design and function. The two are different. If you go just by the design of a thing, you will often just get something that is just "for show" and serves no real purpose.

What Bee is trying to tell you is, you're so focused on "design" (the frame) that you aren't understanding that "function" demands that the frame be a certain height so that the warm pad will touch the chicks' backs. If the pad isn't touching the chicks, they won't get the amount of heat from it that they need.

Here's another way of seeing your problem. If you have a strained muscle and you wish to treat the soreness with a heating pad, do you place it in direct contact with that body part or do you simply wave your sore arm over the pad, hoping the heat will somehow leap onto your arm? See? A heating pad doesn't work that way. It has to be in direct contact with your body to work or else it's useless.

It's exactly the same with chicks. It won't work unless your frame allows the pad to touch the chicks' bodies.

 

[Beekissed]

Huh... I confess to not reading all 450+ pages of this thread, but everything that I read shows the heating pad lying atop some sort of metal frame, with space for the chicks below it. The temp, as I said, is 85 degrees under the frame, which is consistent with what the original poster had.

Yes, the pad lies atop some kind of metal frame, but the metal frame is adjustable to fit the growth and size of the current chick,much like a mother hen will squat at different levels to bring the heat of her body in contact with the backs of her chicks.

You can try it this way and it just may work, considering the small, enclosed space you are using and the amount of chicks you are expecting and being that you are brooding inside a house with steady ambient temps....but just because it may work in that situation, doesn't mean it couldn't create problems in another situation~such as when you want to move those chicks to a larger space or outdoors.

All you can do is try it out and see if it works for you, but if you seem to have trouble keeping the chicks warm, it could be due to the distance of the heating pad from the target of need.

 

[Redufresne]

I, too, am first timer chick mom. But my six chicks are already almost four weeks old. Here's what I learned: they grow incredibly fast. Those cute balls of fuzz start putting out feathers immediately. They need more space than you think. 15 chicks will last in the brooder you have for maybe a week. Mine was twce that size for 6 and I couldnt bear to keep them crowded in there anymore. They went out to the coop last evening (and lved through the night!). Also, they quickly start pooping wherever they are standing. Nothng is safe from poop. This is the reason for the press and seal everywhere, and in your case, covering the towel with it completely so poop wipes up off of it. They will poop n the water and so my waterer that looked like yours lasted one day. I switched to a hanging waterer with nipples on the bittom and taught them how to use it by picking up each one and tapping their bills gently in the metal part of the nipple so they could understand water comes out.They will bill out or claw out the food from the dish. I never solved that, though in big coop I have a different feeder that may help. I used wood shavings and chick flic to control odor and manage the poop that was everywhere. I could pick up clumps of poop and shavings with paper towel and throw down more shavings to keep srface fairly clean. Chickflic or PDZ neutralzes odor and really works. After a while I thought of putting extra layer of press and seal on MHP, just on top, so i could just peal off and replace when it got poop covered. I guess I was surprised at the need for so much poop management, but I got good at it. In the four weeks in the brooder, i changed the shavngs out completely only once. I also gave them a big clump of grass with dirt from day one, to be sure they got grit if they needed it (because I couldnt resist giving treats after a few days). A few weeks in, I gave them chick grit. I used cat toys into which i put dried meal worms for their amusement. I will let @blooie tell you about how to improve the MHP (I was advised to slope it down toward the back end so they could put backs up against the heat). To paraphrase Jaws, youre gonna need a bigger MHP and brooder. IMHO.

 

[jaslyman]

I understand how a heating pad works. It sounds as though you are saying that this whole method requires that the heating pad be in contact with the chicks backs.

From the original poster of this thread (Blooie): "They aren't in actual physical contact with the pad, (except for those times when they climb on top of it and play or take quick naps) so they are pretty good at choosing the optimum place to be for comfort."

So maybe what I'm doing is closer to the Premier heat plate approach. But surely there is more than one way of accomplishing the main objective, which in this case is to provide sufficient heat, whether its via radiant vs. conductive.

All that said, I could certainly build something that gets the frame lower to the floor and slants to accommodate different heights...

 

[jaslyman]

All you can do is try it out and see if it works for you, but if you seem to have trouble keeping the chicks warm, it could be due to the distance of the heating pad from the target of need.

Thanks, makes sense!

 

[jaslyman]

I, too, am first timer chick mom. But my six chicks are already almost four weeks old. Here's what I learned: they grow incredibly fast. Those cute balls of fuzz start putting out feathers immediately. They need more space than you think. 15 chicks will last in the brooder you have for maybe a week. Mine was twce that size for 6 and I couldnt bear to keep them crowded in there anymore. They went out to the coop last evening (and lved through the night!). Also, they quickly start pooping wherever they are standing. Nothng is safe from poop. This is the reason for the press and seal everywhere, and in your case, covering the towel with it completely so poop wipes up off of it. They will poop n the water and so my waterer that looked like yours lasted one day. I switched to a hanging waterer with nipples on the bittom and taught them how to use it by picking up each one and tapping their bills gently in the metal part of the nipple so they could understand water comes out.They will bill out or claw out the food from the dish. I never solved that, though in big coop I have a different feeder that may help. I used wood shavings and chick flic to control odor and manage the poop that was everywhere. I could pick up clumps of poop and shavings with paper towel and throw down more shavings to keep srface fairly clean. Chickflic or PDZ neutralzes odor and really works. After a while I thought of putting extra layer of press and seal on MHP, just on top, so i could just peal off and replace when it got poop covered. I guess I was surprised at the need for so much poop management, but I got good at it. In the four weeks in the brooder, i changed the shavngs out completely only once. I also gave them a big clump of grass with dirt from day one, to be sure they got grit if they needed it (because I couldnt resist giving treats after a few days). A few weeks in, I gave them chick grit. I used cat toys into which i put dried meal worms for their amusement. I will let @blooie tell you about how to improve the MHP (I was advised to slope it down toward the back end so they could put backs up against the heat). To paraphrase Jaws, youre gonna need a bigger MHP and brooder. IMHO.

Thank you! So I won't plan on having them in this tub any longer than 7 days, and maybe not even that long. But then they'll go into a 6'x3' brooder (that I'm still building) and that will include a bigger MHP in it as well. I actually bought a bag of PDZ - looking forward to trying it out! Thank again for all the good tips and sharing your experience.