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

[MesMama]

@bruceha2000 Thank you for the help! I should take pics of our set up so y'all know what I'm working with, I'm trying to figure out how to make a separate run for the littles, more so how to keep them separate from the bigs since theyre all in the coop together...hard to explain the set up so may just take pics

 

[MesMama]

I am in tears right now as I type this. I went to go check on the brooder this morning and found my little Blue Ameraucana chick wedged between the hardware cloth and the heating pad, dead. 

I feel like this is all my fault. I let her down! The system seemed to be working wonderfully. They've been happy and growing. She was only a week old! She was the main reason I decided to go with raising baby chicks this year, instead of getting started 6 week old pullets from the feed store, as I've always wanted a Blue Ameraucana. I feel just sick right now! 


I just thought I'd share this so it doesn't happen to anyone else.   

Oh no!!! ((Hugs)) I'm so sorry that happened to you!

 

[AllynTal]

Quote:

The board between the rungs is kerfed, so it isn't a problem. This isn't my first time with chickens, just the first time with the MHP.

(and the first time with chickens in the deep South. aart misled you when he implied that I only have experience with chickens down here.)

Today, they all came out to explore the grass, and took themselves back up into the coop when they were ready...and then came back out and went back up...so I'm confident the ramp isn't too steep. The only distressed chick I had was one that got knocked out of the doorway when one of his flockmates did a stage-dive off the top of the cave and bumped him out. And he was distressed only moment until he realized the ramp was right there. And back up he went.



Chicks outside less than a week old? The lampers would crucify me.

 

[mymilliefleur]

I am in tears right now as I type this. I went to go check on the brooder this morning and found my little Blue Ameraucana chick wedged between the hardware cloth and the heating pad, dead.

I feel like this is all my fault. I let her down! The system seemed to be working wonderfully. They've been happy and growing. She was only a week old! She was the main reason I decided to go with raising baby chicks this year, instead of getting started 6 week old pullets from the feed store, as I've always wanted a Blue Ameraucana. I feel just sick right now!

I just thought I'd share this so it doesn't happen to anyone else.

On no! That's terrible!

Sorry for your loss!

 

[aart]

Today, they all came out to explore the grass, and took themselves back up into the coop when they were ready...and then came back out and went back up.......

That's Great!!

I am in tears right now as I type this. I went to go check on the brooder this morning and found my little Blue Ameraucana chick wedged between the hardware cloth and the heating pad, dead. ....

That Stinks!

 

[tenman78]

On no! That's terrible! Sorry for your loss!

Sorry for your loss. I was worried that that would happen to mine too.

 

[AllynTal]

I just thought I'd share this so it doesn't happen to anyone else.

I am so sorry.

 

[Blooie]

Blooie, how's your little chick doing that escaped and just about died? I couldn't find an update. It's amazing how emotionally invested we become in baby chicks, even other people's.

She's doing just great, thanks! Except for the wings being separated the're's no way to tell her from the other two! And we haven't had any more escapes, so they are staying put well!

I am in tears right now as I type this. I went to go check on the brooder this morning and found my little Blue Ameraucana chick wedged between the hardware cloth and the heating pad, dead.

I feel like this is all my fault. I let her down! The system seemed to be working wonderfully. They've been happy and growing. She was only a week old! She was the main reason I decided to go with raising baby chicks this year, instead of getting started 6 week old pullets from the feed store, as I've always wanted a Blue Ameraucana. I feel just sick right now!

I just thought I'd share this so it doesn't happen to anyone else.

I'm so sorry this happened. There have been a couple of these incidents, so this year I changed things up and put the heating pad on the inside of the frame, secured well with bungies, and that makes me feel a little more secure. I've never had it happen, but I don't want it to happen either. I always feel bad when someone using MHP loses a chick - like in some way I bear a little responsibility for the loss.

Chicks outside less than a week old? The lampers would crucify me.

I know....we're supposed to leave them inside until we find the first egg in the brooder!

Of course that's not what they say, but after weeks and weeks of listening to the peeping and fighting the dust, it feels that way. Mine were hatched on Tuesday, outside on either Saturday or Sunday - days are running together on me for some reason. The delay was because we had one section of the pen that wasn't behaving....wouldn't cinch up the way we had it last year. So we waited until we got that fixed. Obviously we didn't fix it very well, or Little Stinker wouldn't have gotten out and almost died.

The first year I had heat lamp chicks, I evicted them at 5.5 weeks....the coop wasn't even finished yet and it was them or me!! So they went out and our nighttime temps were in the 20s. I put a heat lamp out there, as well as a wireless thermometer transmitter, with the receiver on my nightstand. All night I watched that temperature creep down - 22, 20, 19, 17 - gasp!! They were going to DIE!! I kept getting out of bed and checking on them. They weren't anywhere near the heat lamp. They were snuggled in a cozy mass of feathers and beaks in front of the pop door. Yet I kept getting up, pulling on boots and putting my winter coat over my jammies. I was freezing - they were fine. Next night it was the same story - except I only got out of bed once. That third morning I took that heat lamp out. That night it snowed, and we got our last snowfall on June 6th. If I'd left them inside until the temps warmed up, think of how old they'd have been! My coop is unheated and unisulated, yet they thrived. Aside from some I gave to a neighbor who lost her flock and those that ended up in freezer camp, most of them are still out there. So temps in the 40s and 50s are a piece of cake for these well insulated critters.

 

[bruceha2000]

I am in tears right now as I type this. I went to go check on the brooder this morning and found my little Blue Ameraucana chick wedged between the hardware cloth and the heating pad, dead.

I feel like this is all my fault. I let her down! The system seemed to be working wonderfully. They've been happy and growing. She was only a week old! She was the main reason I decided to go with raising baby chicks this year, instead of getting started 6 week old pullets from the feed store, as I've always wanted a Blue Ameraucana. I feel just sick right now!

I just thought I'd share this so it doesn't happen to anyone else.

I am SO sorry it happened. All chicks are special but the hard to get breeds even so much more.
Sadly, it HAS happened to other people. That is why you will find posts suggesting encasing the entire cave in a pillowcase so there is NO accessible gap between the pad and the frame supporting it.

The board between the rungs is kerfed, so it isn't a problem. This isn't my first time with chickens, just the first time with the MHP.

(and the first time with chickens in the deep South. aart misled you when he implied that I only have experience with chickens down here.)

Today, they all came out to explore the grass, and took themselves back up into the coop when they were ready...and then came back out and went back up...so I'm confident the ramp isn't too steep. The only distressed chick I had was one that got knocked out of the doorway when one of his flockmates did a stage-dive off the top of the cave and bumped him out. And he was distressed only moment until he realized the ramp was right there. And back up he went.



Chicks outside less than a week old? The lampers would crucify me.

Glad they can use the ramp, must not be as steep as it looked in the picture where only the top was showing. And yep, all the kerfing (which I didn't see) will give plenty of purchase to those little toenails.

Of course that won't matter, those 1 week old chicks won't last 10 minutes outside if it isn't 90F

 

[Moxiechick]

I am SO sorry it happened. All chicks are special but the hard to get breeds even so much more.
Sadly, it HAS happened to other people. That is why you will find posts suggesting encasing the entire cave in a pillowcase so there is NO accessible gap between the pad and the frame supporting it.

I'm so sorry this happened. There have been a couple of these incidents, so this year I changed things up and put the heating pad on the inside of the frame, secured well with bungies, and that makes me feel a little more secure. I've never had it happen, but I don't want it to happen either. I always feel bad when someone using MHP loses a chick - like in some way I bear a little responsibility for the loss.

I wish I had come across these posts explaining safety issues before setting up. I know I should have read all the pages in this thread, but I only read the first dozen or so, plus some at the end. Might I suggest an edit to the first post, that explains and shoes pictures of the set-up? This is what I referenced when building mine.