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

[TerryH]

Newbies feel very relieved this morning!! Everybody popped right out of the MHP when Cheryl turned on the light. They are all eating, drinking and running all over. The Marans came out last but seem perfectly fine.

We were a little concerned that Ray might freak out but so far he literally couldn't care any less that there are noisy little birds in his house.

 

[AlHawk]

Congratulations!! Nerves in check. Chickies prove they are tougher than we think. Now you can enjoy and laugh at them.

 

[poodlechicks]

I have everything set up for the chicks. They are supposed to arrive this morning. I feel good about the MHP every time I see a success story, but I have to confess I'm a bit nervous now that it is my time to put it to the test. I hear time and time again that I shouldn't measure the temps inside the cave, but I just had to do it and it measured 72 after the pad cranked up to 6 for the whole night.
I almost canned the whole idea and reached for the heat lamp, but I'm just too curious about the results to give it up now.
All the chicks you guys got are so adorable!
Congratulations to all!
I didn't read all the posts, so bot sure of the outcome, but I hope your eggs did hatch, blooie.

 

[lazy gardener]

Agrees! .....or hatch some of your own....you have a cockbird in your flock, don't you @Blooie ?

No, she no longer has one.

I have everything set up for the chicks. They are supposed to arrive this morning. I feel good about the MHP every time I see a success story, but I have to confess I'm a bit nervous now that it is my time to put it to the test. I hear time and time again that I shouldn't measure the temps inside the cave, but I just had to do it and it measured 72 after the pad cranked up to 6 for the whole night.
I almost canned the whole idea and reached for the heat lamp, but I'm just too curious about the results to give it up now.
All the chicks you guys got are so adorable!
Congratulations to all!
I didn't read all the posts, so bot sure of the outcome, but I hope your eggs did hatch, blooie.

poodlechicks, Where is your MHP, and what do you have under it for bedding? If there's not much under it for bedding, your temp reading may reflect that fact. Put in a nice layer of shavings, or what ever you intend to use. That will help hold and trap some heat. You'll do fine!!!!

 

[lazy gardener]

Newbies feel very relieved this morning!! Everybody popped right out of the MHP when Cheryl turned on the light. They are all eating, drinking and running all over. The Marans came out last but seem perfectly fine.

We were a little concerned that Ray might freak out but so far he literally couldn't care and less that there are noisy little birds in his house.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE your pics!

 

[aart]

I have everything set up for the chicks. They are supposed to arrive this morning. I feel good about the MHP every time I see a success story, but I have to confess I'm a bit nervous now that it is my time to put it to the test. I hear time and time again that I shouldn't measure the temps inside the cave, but I just had to do it and it measured 72 after the pad cranked up to 6 for the whole night.
I almost canned the whole idea and reached for the heat lamp, but I'm just too curious about the results to give it up now.
All the chicks you guys got are so adorable!
Congratulations to all!
I didn't read all the posts, so bot sure of the outcome, but I hope your eggs did hatch, blooie.

Remember: the MHP isn't intended to heat the air inside the 'cave', but give the chicks a warm surface to touch their backs against to warm them.
Some radiant heating will occur, but don't bother measuring it except out of curiosity.

 

[Blooie]

Nope, no roosters, @aart And LG, I don't know anyone "locally" to get eggs from....um from whom to get eggs... Lots of folks around here have chickens, but only two with roosters and I'm telling ya, I wouldn't buy eating eggs from either of them, <shudder> Ken said last night that as much as we travel, I should just go post on the Wyoming page where we're going to be - Cheyenne, Casper, Sheridan, etc. and when, and if any one there has hatching eggs at that time we could pick them up while we're there.

HOWMSOEVAH - Last night about 12:30 we saw a pip...just the tiniest little thing and it looked a lot like x. Not much bigger! I was so excited! I just knew we'd have a chick by sometime today. Woke up at 4:45 to cheeping...and CHEEPING.....and got up. Turned on the light and saw this little critter in there!


Now I just noticed that another egg in there is rocking a bit. So.....woo hoo!! This is a little Olive Egger and his/her name is Yokel.

 

[aart]

Nope, no roosters, @aart And LG, I don't know anyone "locally" to get eggs from....um from whom to get eggs... Lots of folks around here have chickens, but only two with roosters and I'm telling ya, I wouldn't buy eating eggs from either of them, <shudder> Ken said last night that as much as we travel, I should just go post on the Wyoming page where we're going to be - Cheyenne, Casper, Sheridan, etc. and when, and if any one there has hatching eggs at that time we could pick them up while we're there.

HOWMSOEVAH - Last night about 12:30 we saw a pip...just the tiniest little thing and it looked a lot like x. Not much bigger! I was so excited! I just knew we'd have a chick by sometime today. Woke up at 4:45 to cheeping...and CHEEPING.....and got up. Turned on the light and saw this little critter in there!


Now I just noticed that another egg in there is rocking a bit. So.....woo hoo!! This is a little Olive Egger and his/her name is Yokel.

BabyChickie!!! Yayyy!!!

Good idea on the looking for fertile eggs within your driving ranges.

 

[mobius]

OMG OMG!! YAYYYY!!

Name suggestions: Patience and Virtue

 

[COChix]

Yeah, I liked Meyer. No DOA and only one died but that was at 6 days old and my fault for having the heat too high. The birds are beautiful too, at least mine are. Especially my Barred Rock and Easter Eggers. Curious which ones of yours were mutts? We love ours, got 1 Barred Rock, 2 Black Australorps, 3 Buff Orpingtons, and 2 Easter Eggers. We originally were going to get 2 of each breed but the other BR was the one that died and we added their free chick option which happened to be another BO. I'm glad because I really love them.

So we got the rainbow pack - 5 EE, 5 dark Cornish (one was a runt,), 4 Delaware, 4 Barred Rocks, 2 Welsummer, 2 RIR, 1 meal maker and two buff orph male chicks. We didn't have any DOA, one died day two and we had one sick bird after shipment that survived. The mutts we had were a Delaware and dark Cornish. One Cornish was obviously a runt and never got really big, we found her dead one day in the yard, no obvious signs of cause of death. Same thing on one Delaware at about 1 year, same thing, but she wasn't a runt. One of our dark Cornish is a hatchery mutt as well. Comb all wrong, etc. That happens with hatcheries, I guess. We have been happy, we had our flock vaccinated before shipment as we didn't want to take chances. Since the original flock we have not vaccinated anyone and besides those couple birds we haven't had any illness. That was two years ago, since then we have hatched from our original flock last year and got 15 chicks, 8 males and 7 females. The pullets are all a almost a year old now, it has been an amazing experience to have raised that flock from chicks to then hatch from that flock.

Nope, no roosters, @aart And LG, I don't know anyone "locally" to get eggs from....um from whom to get eggs... Lots of folks around here have chickens, but only two with roosters and I'm telling ya, I wouldn't buy eating eggs from either of them, Ken said last night that as much as we travel, I should just go post on the Wyoming page where we're going to be - Cheyenne, Casper, Sheridan, etc. and when, and if any one there has hatching eggs at that time we could pick them up while we're there. HOWMSOEVAH - Last night about 12:30 we saw a pip...just the tiniest little thing and it looked a lot like x. Not much bigger! I was so excited! I just knew we'd have a chick by sometime today. Woke up at 4:45 to cheeping...and CHEEPING.....and got up. Turned on the light and saw this little critter in there! Now I just noticed that another egg in there is rocking a bit. So.....woo hoo!! This is a little Olive Egger and his/her name is Yokel.

Yeah, congrats. How many have hatched now?