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

[hpierce88]

When the chicks get older I would recommend horizontal nipples on the sides of the bucket. They leak less, freeze less in winter, and plus you can put the bucket anywhere and not have to hang it since the nipples are not on the bottom. I made a 5 gallon bucket horizontal nipple waterer and love it. Mine caught on same day but they were pretty old and moved outside. I mention when they are older because sometimes for babies the horizontal ones are harder to press down on but others have no issues

Yeah, I couldn't decide, so I ordered both kinds, lol. I'm REALLY bad with online shopping. Amazon Prime certainly doesn't help since I dont' even need to actually take my credit card out of my wallet, lol.

 

[Blooie]

This is pretty much unrelated to MHP's, but still about raisings chicks, so here goes.... I have a white picket fence around two sides of my garden which is where the chicks expanded run will be. My plan is to only have them in the garden when I'm home to supervise them (The run attached to the coop is roofed to protect from eagles and hawks, but the garden is open so I won't leave them unattended because we have an abundance of both where I live). I was going to line the picket fence with 24"H chicken wire to keep the chicks from sticking their heads (or bodies!) through when they're little, but now I'm thinking maybe I should go ahead and use 48"H right off the bat to help deter them from trying to fly over and out when they're older?? My question is about the spacing of the chicken wire.... 2" weave, or the smaller 1"? Or 1" on the bottom, and 2" on the top (which will complicate things by requiring two rolls of fencing)?? I don't anticipate putting them outside for another couple weeks because I need to scrub the coop clean and bleach it, which means they'll be at least 3-4 weeks old by then, assuming they're about 5-6 days old now (I just got them this morning from the feed store so I don't really "know" how old they are).

UGH!! I'm thinking that I think I'm overthinking my thinking!!

Anyways, here's a few pics of the garden/coop and the little darlings. They're so **** cute! My 15yr old daughter can't stop fawning over them. Lol. Are they old enough to get some hard-boiled egg as a treat tomorrow? I'm sure she'd love to feed them out of her hand.


Heather

Hi Heather. Those chicks are so stinkin' cute! Chicks can have hardboiled eggs, especially the yolks, but tell your daughter not to be too upset if they look at her hand like the Evil Monster from Deathland come to get them at first. It takes a little time.

I don't know what to tell you about the garden area. Many times people find that even a 48" inch high fence won't keep them in if they decide to go exploring - mine sure can go over it. But for now, I don't see why why 1 inch chicken wire over the pickets wouldn't work to keep them from squirting out, and as long as you don't let them out when you aren't around to supervise they should be fine. Notice all the "should be's" and "as long as'es". Sure enough if I tell you to put in the 2 inch one of the little stinkers will catch their heads trying to escape and then I blew the call. And remember that chicken wire keeps them in, but doesn't do anything against something getting in.

 

[dyorto]

Sounds like I'm lucky to have such nice chicken-friendly neighbors. Mine come and give them kitchen scraps and the kids will feed and and water if we are away!

 

[AllynTal]

When the chicks get older I would recommend horizontal nipples on the sides of the bucket. They leak less, freeze less in winter, and plus you can put the bucket anywhere and not have to hang it since the nipples are not on the bottom. I made a 5 gallon bucket horizontal nipple waterer and love it. Mine caught on same day but they were pretty old and moved outside. I mention when they are older because sometimes for babies the horizontal ones are harder to press down on but others have no issues

I'm staying with vertical nipples. I don't have to worry about it freezing. If the temps here in winter get down to freezing, it's a major event that necessitates calling everyone you know to warn them. I'm doing a 5-gallon bucket with a PVC piped extension. The pipe extends into the run or the coop and the vertical nipples are in the pipe. That way the 5-gallon bucket itself isn't taking up room in the coop or run. It doesn't have to hang. It just has to be high enough that the water will gravity-feed into the pipe. The nipples I have don't leak if they're installed properly. A little ACV in the water keeps algae from growing so cleaning is a minimum.

(image source: grit.com)

 

[hpierce88]

Hi Heather. Those chicks are so stinkin' cute! Chicks can have hardboiled eggs, especially the yolks, but tell your daughter not to be too upset if they look at her hand like the Evil Monster from Deathland come to get them at first. It takes a little time.

I don't know what to tell you about the garden area. Many times people find that even a 48" inch high fence won't keep them in if they decide to go exploring - mine sure can go over it. But for now, I don't see why why 1 inch chicken wire over the pickets wouldn't work to keep them from squirting out, and as long as you don't let them out when you aren't around to supervise they should be fine. Notice all the "should be's" and "as long as'es". Sure enough if I tell you to put in the 2 inch one of the little stinkers will catch their heads trying to escape and then I blew the call. And remember that chicken wire keeps them in, but doesn't do anything against something getting in.

I can't help by think that with 3 large (40lbs, 90lbs, 112lbs), protective dogs outside of the garden area, if anything traveling by ground gets in, they almost deserve a reward of some type. Lol. The main purpose of the higher fence is to keep them from flying into the back yard. The picket fence sits atop a retaining wall that goes from 3ft high behind the coop, to about 8-10 feet high along the left/back side of the garden. I'm afraid that if they "fly the coop" in that direction they'll either land in the fish pond below, or end up in the neighbor's yard (the jerk neighbor's yard at that!).

I'm staying with vertical nipples. I don't have to worry about it freezing. If the temps here in winter get down to freezing, it's a major event that necessitates calling everyone you know to warn them. I'm doing a 5-gallon bucket with a PVC piped extension. The pipe extends into the run or the coop and the vertical nipples are in the pipe. That way the 5-gallon bucket itself isn't taking up room in the coop or run. It doesn't have to hang. It just has to be high enough that the water will gravity-feed into the pipe. The nipples I have don't leak if they're installed properly. A little ACV in the water keeps algae from growing so cleaning is a minimum.

(image source: grit.com)

I'd love to see pics of your set-up. I was just outside staring at my coop thinking about the best way to go about putting a nipple waterer inside the coop with the water source outside, because if I can take out the large hanging waterer that's in there now, I can add another roost in the space and maybe add two more birds.

 

[Finnie]

I don't know if you saw @Beekissed posts about the way she does hers. I took mine apart day before yesterday and did it her way. The chicks I hatched were so doggone small compared to those that are a few days old when I get them that a for the first time I worried about one getting hung in the wire frame! It's wonderful. Here's a link to that page for you:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/956958/mama-heating-pad-in-the-brooder-picture-heavy-update/450

And you are most certainly welcome here, in my fort, and anywhere else on BYC you care to pop in. But remember that your dues here on MHP are pics of the Littles! Thanks for remembering about the chocolate..got a pork chop laying around not doing anything? THAT'S my idea of a bedtime snack! (Could have had something to do with the heart attack, but I can only give up one vice at a time!)

Thank you for the link, Blooie! Her post has some great information. I think mine will have one feature at least the same as hers: if I need it shorter for the chicks to snuggle against it, I can smash it down flatter in seconds.

Here are my dues

:

Salmon Faverolle chick from the old brooder.

I bought her from a feed store. You can see the other four, slightly older chicks in the background. Those four are from my first ever hatch.

And here is a photo of some future littles:


I do not have a pork chop, but I DO have some BBQ beef ribs in my fridge left over from our dinner the other night. I've had my eye on them, but I'm willing to share!

 

[Finnie]

Quote: I already had the horizontal kind, but I don't trust them for the first few days when the chicks don't seem like they can peck hard enough. But now I'm convinced that they can manage the vertical from day one, so it will be nice to do away with the splashy mason jar waterer.

 

[Finnie]

Quote: My pet sitter (who also has chickens) told me that the trick is not giving them a place to land at the top of the fence. Mine is four foot, but it has a wooden rail at the top, and they love to go for walks on it. But she said hers is just a wire fence without a top rail, and since they don't want to land on that thin wire, they would have to fly completely over the whole four feet to the other side, and the just don't want to bother to do that.

So possibly, if they don't like those pointy pickets, your fence might be enough to keep them in just like it is, once they get too big to squeeze between the pickets. So you could maybe do the 24" now to keep them in, and wait to see if going higher is unnecessary.

 

[Finnie]

Quote:
That water set-up looks great!

 

[COChix]

We've had that swing a few times in the last month or so, a few days of 'spring' weather .....then more cold and snow/sleet/rain...Oh, wait, that is spring weather in MI.......haha! Was not going to rub it in...but we are back to warm and dry again.....I threw(literally) all the chicks out into the run. Waterer ran out this morning, put the HNippler in, they all went right at it but most couldn't push hard enough. Let them struggle with it for a few hours, they'll get it eventually...then threw them out where there's another waterer. I know, I know, take all other water away.....my circus, my monkeys. ;-) Dug up some of the hard packed ground and they dove in to roll around....they are so funny.

That is ok, I know lots of people have this type of weather right now, just happen to be our turn. Gotta get my nipple waterer up and running for them.

Very well said!! Good job!! And I agree totally! UGH...you can keep it down your way. I was supposed to get the chicks moved out today - they were actually in here longer than they should have been. Sweet Pea and Yokel hatched out Tuesday morning and were under MHP Tuesday afternoon. Then yesterday we bought the 7 new little ones. But we ran into a glitch with the outdoor pen....we have one side that seems to want to gap open. We know exactly how we want to fix that, so no problem there, but Ken had to go to Thermopolis for the day and I can't hold the pen and do the securing at the same time. Started having some minor chest pains last night too, so I'm taking it easy today. Don't panic - it's normal sometimes after stenting. Already had it checked out. So it looks like the little boogers will be in here until tomorrow. Don't like keeping them in the house this long. I like to get them out and acclimating and the longer they are indoors the more they adjust to a warmer ambient temperature. Humidity isn't an issue that you even need to worry about. Their poop and respiration will bring that up soon enough, and I don't imagine the humidity under a heat lamp is much better. That's some hot, dry air right there! None of us (that I'm aware of anyway) even think about humidity. Sounds like they are doing just fine otherwise! Exactly!! Now let me do a little "rubbing in" just to get even: Sweet Pea and Yokel using the horizontal nipple. Took them several tries to figure out that if they even moved the little mechanism a little to the side, water came out. Not a lot, not as much as a full on press, but enough to satisfy them and keep them working at it. Oh, and this was Wednesday. They hatched Tuesday. The new chicks from the feed store are having a harder time with the concept,

Nice that thye picked it up quickly, I got to get ours set up. I understand about having them in the house and wanting to get them outside. However, enjoy their cuteness while you can once they get outside the become wild chicks. So we have been having snow all day. I have checked the brooder all day. One time they had all escaped and all were really standing with the he adult flock under the coop. So I heard end them up, they were wandering outside their brooder. So I checked it, remember I had it on 4, it said 60. So I cranked it up to 6 and re-fluffed straw and added some more drier straw around their cave and on top. Grabbed them and then checked the temp later it was 73. The were chirping away annoying the heat, so I need to check them again soon and feed another round of FF slightly warmed (maybe I will give them an egg). Anyway, will check everything once again and take some pictures. So far so good, we will see how much snow we get overnight, little concerned.

I cheated the door open a little last night and stuck the camera in for some blind shots.

Cuties!

Hi guys! Mind if I join in? I think I'm still on page three, reading from the beginning. It's very interesting, but I want to jump in without reading all 578 pages! I am really on board with this method of brooding, and since I am also newly on board with a new hatching addiction (including lurking on Blooie's Blankie Fort), I will be needing to set up more than my usual 1 brooder. I ordered a king size heat pad which is due to arrive today. But since I was impatient, and since I have this dog crate that started looking like a really good, but small, brooder, and since I already owned a regular-size continuous heat pad.... I decided to make a modified, mini version. I did speed read through the Photo gallery for this thread so I would know how to copy making it. You guys are all really creative! I wanted to post the photos of making mine, since these were the kinds of photos that were so helpful for me to learn from. I guess we'll find out if the scarf stays in place or if the chicks peck it and dismantle it. At least the clothes pins ought to provide them with something to play with. I put a remote sensor underneath it to test how warm it gets. But today's not a good test day, because it's over 70F in my garage. I'll have to monitor how cool it gets overnight when the temperatures drop to see if this heat pad is good enough. It ought to be. I've been using it for years to warm my fish tank brooder that I hand raise baby parakeets in. It keeps that at a steady 90F, but that's with the tank sitting on top of the heat pad, and inside the warm house. Soooo, I think I am ready for the next 25 eggs to hatch. They are due tomorrow. No pips yet, but this morning I heard distinct chirping! I think I read that means there is internal pipping into the air cell. I can't wait. This is only my second hatch, and I'm still giddy about it! I need to go over and join the blankie fort. I can bring M&Ms. Is anyone allergic to peanuts? (Sorry Blooie, I know you hate chocolate...)

Creative, will be watching to see what those chicks do, thanks for sharing.