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

[MesMama]

*off topic so I deleted

 

[Blooie]

Just sharing a couple pics of my setup.

Brooder within the run:


Access to the cave:


Wishing them luck with tonight's frosty temps.

I really like that brooder!! Awesome job!!! They should be fine - I have mine outside in their pen in the run from day one and the temps are in the teens and twenties. As long as they can easily get into the cave, and the straw isn't so deep on top that they don't feel the heat radiating up should they decide to sit on top instead of underneath, they're golden! They look very nicely feathered, so I think you can relax! Oh,and your dues are paid!

 

[eagrbeavr]

Beautiful set up

 

[Blooie]

Ok peeps, I need some ideas to keep these chicks busy, they want out of that brooder something fierce and I'm just not comfortable with letting them out with the bigs just yet.

So, I have several grass clumps in there and a stick that they like to stand on, but what else? Any other chick play toy ideas?

Suet cages. Yep, those little wire cages that you hang suet in for wild birds. You can cram it full of whatever treats they like - chopped up apples, tomatoes, watermelon chunks.....just jam it in there! Then hang it up. They have to work to get the treats out! I still do that with my adults as well. In winter I put homemade suet in there for the little extra fat and as a boredom buster. Don't overdo it though, once in awhile is fine. But you can leave the cage in there for them. The goofy things will think it's a tether ball!!

Large marbles. They'll play soccer with them.

 

[junebuggena]

thank you!! That's why I wrote it-just cause we read something doesn't mean it's like that in every case. I thought only Ameraucana lay true blue eggs? Or they lay only blue eggs and EE lay various colors? Thx for specifying...I've learned so much already

You can only be sure of blue eggs from true Ameraucana or Araucana. Easter Eggers can lay just about any color egg, and there is no way to tell what color egg a pullet will lay until she starts laying them. The pea comb is linked to the blue egg gene, so if your Easter Egger has a pea comb, the odds for at least green are good. Leg color is no indication of egg color. Most Easter Eggers do have greenish legs.

 

[eagrbeavr]

Put some cardboard in there and mark it with black dots from a marker. They'll peck at it thinking theyre bugs

 

[eagrbeavr]

*off topic so I deleted

Put some cardboard in there and mark it with black dots from a marker. They'll peck at them thinking theyre bugs

 

[MesMama]

Thank you! You guys saw it before I deleted it hehe! I'll try those ideas!! Little goobers flick feed like crazy! I'm assuming from boredom, I started wetting down their feed to make a mash so I know they're not THAT hungry.

 

[Blooie]

Thank you! You guys saw it before I deleted it

hehe! I'll try those ideas!! Little goobers flick feed like crazy! I'm assuming from boredom, I started wetting down their feed to make a mash so I know they're not THAT hungry.

I didn't mean that we can't share some ideas on occasion! Just that we were getting way toooo far off with things that have already been covered in depth on other threads.

 

[poodlechicks]

No apologies needed at all....BYC exists to share information and learn, learn, learn....we just got a little too far off and I was afraid it might be confusing to new folks coming in, that's all! IF htey were looking for heating pad stuff and seeing page after page of everything but, they might not get their concerns addressed.  I've done my share of hijacking!  
If you have the pad more toward the back and leave a space at the front without heat, like I did on page one of the thread, the towel or whatever you use coming down in front will form an awning and still help hold heat in.  Don't go all the way to the ground with it...just an awning. The only thing I'd worry about then is them falling through the towel because the supporting wires are so far apart on a tomato cage, but I know lots of people have used them with great success. Or you can always cut the back off a bit until the pad is closer to fitting the way you want it to.  I think @COChix
 used a tomato cage and liked it, so she might have more ideas than I do.  


Thanks for the support.  I'm not normally grouchy.  But today is my one-month-no-smoking anniversary after 52 years of smoking, it's been a particularly bad one, and if those who precipitated this little rant had been peeking in the windows they couldn't have picked a worse day.  And actually it's been that way for the last 3 - 4 days, so maybe I over-reacted a bit. I don't know. 

Thank you, Blooie. And congrats on conquering your 1st month w/o smoking!
I'm actually covering the top of the tomato cage w 1 inch hardware cloth. I was concerned about the HP sinking through the holes and ending up trapping a chick. I've seen the pics of the setups, but I didn't have a clear pic of the dimensions till I saw that the HP is actually much smaller than the cave. Because I'm expecting 16 chicks, I thought it would be best not to cut too much of the cage. I just don't want them to feel cold.