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

[dyorto]

I have some that are a kind of blueish green...more blue than greenish though, and Aggie lays the prettiest blue blue eggs. Sometimes it's hard to get the blue to show up in photos, as anyone who has tried it can attest, but I don't have any green layers out there. Hope that the Olive Egger in the incubator hatches. Got this iddy biddy one last month...it was blueish green but next to an Agatha egg you sure can't tell. It looks all green! [COLOR=B42000] [/COLOR] Edited to add the link to my original 5 Easter Eggers....4 of them are still with us! https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/the-easter-eggers-of-oleo-acres

I enjoyed reading your bios.

 

[FlyWheel]

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[Beekissed]

At this point, the frame has no purpose at all....could be removed altogether.

 

[FlyWheel]

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[Beekissed]

Aha, you didn't read to the last line. The cage will still be covered by the towel, keeping the heat inside the cave just like before, but with the heat coming from the floor rather than the ceiling. I got the idea from my water bed, which is also heated, but from underneath by the mattress, not from above by the blankets!

But yes, when the chicks outgrow it I can simply remove the cage and it's cover. by then they will be feathered enough so that as Blooie pointed out in another reply an open pad will be sufficient.

Oh, I read it....but I still think it's not necessary.

By the time they are that old and are only needing a warm surface on which to sleep, they don't need a "cave" at all unless they are outdoors in very cold temps and you are trying to help them conserve body heat, at which time you'd still want that HP touching their backs instead of their feet.

Like Blooie said, the next time I see a hen sleeping on her back with all the chicks on her belly, then that would be a good time to put the HP on the bottom of the brooder.

 

[FlyWheel]

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[Beekissed]

Seriously, does it really matter which side the warmth come from so long as the babies have a place to go that is warm? And they're going to be better protected from the cold inside the MHP than they will be on top, even you can't argue with that.

And if on top of the pad is the only place they insist on going then why not use a little psychological Jujutsu?

I guess that's up to you! If you don't think it matters, then I guess it doesn't really matter.

An observation was made~"At this point, the frame has no purpose at all....could be removed altogether"~but was not an edict of any kind.

I'd say if they were truly cold, they'd not be on top of the brooder frame in the first place.

 

[bruceha2000]

Ok, I tried to put something together based on perchie.girl's drawing from a ways back. Here are a few picks. Haven't actually tried it out but looking forward to in probably less than a week... Dowels can be adjusted to different heights as the chicks get bigger. And it fits nicely in the new brooder we just built.

Nice job!

Quote:
ALWAYS is very specific

No guarantees but yes they will usually have legs that are green. As chicks it depends on their coloring. Eos had legs that, at best, I could say "I THINK they are a little bit green". But she was a white chick with a tiny bit of apricot shading on her head. The other two were brown chipmunk and had definitely green legs from day one as did the 2 I got in June 2012.

Chick in the back. Biggify the picture and see if you can convince yourself her legs are green

Eos the adult.

So your egg comments prompted me to check out the forum on here of people posting pictures of their colored eggs. Now I'm even more IMPATIENT for my babies to be layers! They are soo cool to see!

Take a SERIOUSLY large quantity of the pills in the bottle marked "patience". You have 5 months minimum to your first egg from these girls.

Quote:
A standard APA Ameraucana will only lay blue, it is a requirement. But there isn't a single shade of blue so a dozen APA Ameraucanas will likely lay a variety of shades of blue eggs.

Easter eggers can lay anything from blue to green and when created as olive eggers, a very dark green. BUT ... EEs have no standards and aren't an APA breed so it is possible an EE chick might grow up to lay some shade of brown. Depends on their genetics and if there is at least one copy of the blue egg gene. If she doesn't have one, she can't lay blue or green.

Oh, I read it....but I still think it's not necessary.

By the time they are that old and are only needing a warm surface on which to sleep, they don't need a "cave" at all unless they are outdoors in very cold temps and you are trying to help them conserve body heat, at which time you'd still want that HP touching their backs instead of their feet.

Like Blooie said, the next time I see a hen sleeping on her back with all the chicks on her belly, then that would be a good time to put the HP on the bottom of the brooder.

Yep

Seriously, does it really matter which side the warmth come from so long as the babies have a place to go that is warm? And they're going to be better protected from the cold inside the MHP than they will be on top, even you can't argue with that.

And if on top of the pad is the only place they insist on going then why not use a little psychological Jujutsu?

Kinda, yeah

If your birds just refused to go in the cave with the pad attached under the frame then I guess it doesn't matter to them. But, in general, as has been pointed out multiple times on this thread, a hen doesn't warm chicks feet and bellies. They take care of that themselves and stay warm by close proximity of their backs to the hen and their sides to the hen or other chicks.

 

[bruceha2000]

how about these


NOT chicken eggs but eggs from the Tinamou

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...american-bird-that-lays-shiny-iridescent-eggs

Yep they are real the shine is no touchup or paint...

deb

OK, I seriously want some of those!!!!!

 

[dyorto]

Bruce, do you have some of those patience pills for me? I'm fresh out