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

[FlyWheel]

Ducks are a gateway poultry. Next thing you know you'll be buying geese.

Then I am already addicted. When I Lived in Reseda 20 years ago I had chickens, ducks AND geese. And no less than five of each. It's only because I.m too lazy to dig out a level area for a pond that I restrict myself to chickens now!

<Snip!>
I keep telling people I could design a filter for a duck pond but no one believes me......

In theory I can.... but havent been able to proove it because Ihavent done it YET>

deb

When I had my ducks and geese I didn't bother trying to figure out a filter system. I had two ponds, and when the water would start getting 'ripe', about three days in the California summer sun, I would take a hose and siphon it into the garden. Never had to buy fertilizer and everyone was amazed at the size and productivity of our plants. No filters to clean out either! Naturally all the garden and landscape cuttings and leftovers went back to the birds.

Congratulations! Yep, you can turn the pad off, they don't need any heat but they might like to keep the "security cave".

Done. Last night was supposed to have mild temps so I turned it off around midday. I checked periodically during the night, but heard nothing other than their normal sleepy-peeps. This morning I went out early and they were all sleeping peacefully spread out on the top of the cave. So I removed the heating pad, refolded the towel and placed it back on top of the wire cave. Once they get too big to squeeze through the chain-link I'll cordon off a section of the coop/run and introduce them to their permanent home.


I found some wild strawberries yesterday so i gathered them up and dropped them into the brooder. Well a few were too big to slip through the hardware cloth.

Ever see baby chickens play beach volleyball?

 

[ShrekDawg]

@KDOGG331


Its an investment.   here you can get the totes for around a hundred.  Use for CocaCola syrup originally.  San Diego has a bottling plant.

Seriously investigate dishes you like to eat.   If I were on the east coast I would be onto the shell fish that is available.  While I like lobster I prefer crab.  But oysters and clams and mussles are something I get on the rare occasion.   the ocean here is too deep for em.    Our fish is deep sea stuff like Tuna, Albacore , Yellow fin, Skipjack, Sword fish,  ....  I dont get any of that either because this family isnt into fish.

I grew up with a mom that seriously destroyed any fish she cooked....  So the best thing I got was Fish sticks burned on one side and mushy on the other.... How she did that I do not know.  So I had to learn to cook on my own.   It opened serious horizons to foods I would have gagged down in moms house. 

Fish cooked right is delecate and flaky and very flavorful.  And doesnt smell up the house.

develope your food horizons into fish before thinking of raising them for food.

deb

Thanks for all the great info! You are right that I should probably develop my tastes first. And I guess it makes no sense to think about getting them until I know what I like and don't like. Putting the cart before the horse so to speak I guess.

And your mom sounds just like mine! Lol love her but just generally not a great cook, whether it's burning it or being ADD and throwing it together/not reading recipes. Though I must admit some meals are good. My brother loves cooking, I'm mostly too lazy to cook. Although when I do do it I like it so I may do it more.

And thats interesting you say fish shouldn't smell cause that's one of the main reasons no one likes cooking it

Sooo, I could raise them in the house starting in January, stick them in the pond in June and eat them starting August. Well, if I COULD. The pond is really shallow, Probably plenty warm in the summer.  I never understand how the fish and frogs make it through the winter. Though I never see any big fish so maybe the eggs overwinter in the mud bottom or something.


Tilapia is a very mild flavor fish. Lots of times when people don't like fish it is because it has too strong a "fish" flavor.


No heat lamp EVER. Don't measure the temp in the cave, put the back of your hand up against the heating pad, that is what the chicks do with the backs of their bodies. 

If your friend has a broody bird, it might be worth setting up a brooding pen in the coop, moving her there and stuffing the chicks under her. More natural than a MHP   , they will be protected by the hen and integrating immediately with the rest of the birds. Less likely to run into integration issues than if you wait until they are a few months old. 

ETA: completely forgot to reply to Bruce

I think you're right, most of the fish I've had is too "fishy". Maybe I need to try tilapia or something

 

[aart]

Quote:

I keep telling people I could design a filter for a duck pond but no one believes me...

I played with small ornamental pond filtration for a fww years, would be interested to see what you have for this.

Then you know the surface area of the filter is important to water filtration. But there are other things going on in a filter. First you have to remove the particulates.... Debris, plant materials, dissolved poo, etc etc.... The last is what I think makes people assume I am crazy. But if you treat this as if it were a black water problem.... or lowgrade sewage treatment instead of "Pond must be clear and drinkable"

first step is to filter out the chunks..... Which you can do with a prefilter made of swamp cooler pads.... Large stuff. They can be knocked off into the compost pile every so often... then rinsed and replaced.
Then the smaller chunks ..... smaller fiber filter.... Cleanable
Now you can start the biological filter.... Coarse gravel, Medium gravel, Sand, separated by screen. In those gravel/sand particles will reside Aerobic bacteria. These are infinately better at dealing with organic waste. As long as water travels through them to provide oxygen they are good at what they do. Once the water makes it through them then you can deal with the inorganic.... In aquariums Charcoal is one of the absorbers.... but in a pond system you can use pond plants.


The one difference is Mine would be cleanable at each stage so the filtration system could be reset every so often.

It may even make sense to have each medium be in separate containers.... Like I said I havent built one yet

deb
Yep, am familiar with upflow sand/gravel filters.
Agrees, detritus must be removed from water column.

I did 4 separate containers, each with a valved waste drain, and a valve between each container.
Gravity flow, containers set at same level as pond, pump in last container.
1st was vortex to drop heavy debris out, water comes from bottom of pond and enters on tangent to 'spin' out debris, exits at top thru coarse filter.
2nd, multi layered filter, coarse to fine.
3rd, bio media with aeration.
4th, nothing but submersible pump, returns to pond.
Smaller more frequent water changes done by isolating vortex chamber and dumping heavies.
All was small scale...it was a prototype, 'let's play with this concept'.

wanna do a thread?

deb
BTDT http://www.koiphen.com/forums/showthread.php?98478-Miniature-Filter-Pit-Build&highlight=
That thread is about building the upper filter pit, but shows the filtration and pondsai's.
This system would have to be sized to the pond....might be way too much to build for someone with a few ducks.

 

[aart]

Quote: There ya go!! A trash pump might be the ticket.
How did you 'siphon' it...picturing how one often gets a siphon hose going...ewwww!

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote: There ya go!! A trash pump might be the ticket.
How did you 'siphon' it...picturing how one often gets a siphon hose going...ewwww!

Rig a bell siphon Plugged till you need to drain it.... then un plug top it with the mechanism and fill the pool. Soon as the water level gets up.... the siphon will start You can even keep the water running will it sipons to squirt the dirty bits to the low point then when you are done let it drain as far as it will go then toss the hose back in. Pull the siphon bell off and put a stopper on the standpipe.or leave it open because its already set for the top level of the water.

deb

 

[duluthralphie]

This is a weird question but...has anyone ever implemented MHP with older chicks?

I have three 4-week-olds and one 2-week old in the brooder, first time chicken owner. I didn't hear of MHP until I had already purchased a heat lamp and had my brooder set up for a couple weeks, so I kind of wrote it off as something to do next time. However, I am just hating having a light on them all night (I've been turning it off during the day when it's warm indoors) and I'm also grappling with the fact that the big girls probably don't need a light AT ALL anymore at this point, yet I have to keep it on for the baby. She usually sleeps closest to the light, tucked under the wing of my RIR (actually quite cute), then the Australorp and Buff Orpington, all in a line.

So here are my more specific questions:

1. Would it be worth it to set up MHP now (we would use it again on our next batch of chicks, so I'm not terribly concerned with the monetary aspect)?

2. How would it work with an older/taller chick?

3. Do you think the baby would even go in there since the big girls likely wouldn't? Or maybe they would since they all like to sleep together? She does sleep alone under the light sometimes during the day if I don't shut it off.

4. If not worth the set up at this point, does anyone have suggestions for either making it darker at night with the light or making the light more concentrated on the floor of the brooder?

Thanks!

I have not seen anyone else tackle this, so here goes?

Without seeming to be rude or demeaning, Why would you want to use a MHP on 4 week old chicks? At that age I am weaning mine from heat altogether. If they were under a MHP it would be on 1 or off. Just give them a blankie to crawl under.

They are mainly feathered, and will clump together in the cold. Unless you are in Siberia, which is the only place colder than where I live it is a waste of time and money.


I had some three week old chicks out last week, They were not my MHP chicks, I had them in the shed and I only have so many MHP's to go around. They were heat lamp chicks at this point. (Next year I will have more MHPs) I had the lamp set for about 75-80 degrees. The light went out, It got down below 30 here. The chicks did fine when I found them the next 'late" morning they were happy as can be.

The whole point of MHP to me is proving we tend to over heat our chicks. They can handle colder. You are not going to see 10- 4 week old chicks under one hen all night there is not enough room.

Actually, I think I like the blankie Idea I might do that!

They are way hardier than I think you are giving them credit for. IMHO, this was not meant to offend I hope I did not.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

 
This is a weird question but...has anyone ever implemented MHP with older chicks? 

I have three 4-week-olds and one 2-week old in the brooder, first time chicken owner. I didn't hear of MHP until I had already purchased a heat lamp and had my brooder set up for a couple weeks, so I kind of wrote it off as something to do next time. However, I am just hating having a light on them all night (I've been turning it off during the day when it's warm indoors) and I'm also grappling with the fact that the big girls probably don't need a light AT ALL anymore at this point, yet I have to keep it on for the baby. She usually sleeps closest to the light, tucked under the wing of my RIR (actually quite cute), then the Australorp and Buff Orpington, all in a line.

So here are my more specific questions:

1. Would it be worth it to set up MHP now (we would use it again on our next batch of chicks, so I'm not terribly concerned with the monetary aspect)?

2. How would it work with an older/taller chick?

3. Do you think the baby would even go in there since the big girls likely wouldn't? Or maybe they would since they all like to sleep together? She does sleep alone under the light sometimes during the day if I don't shut it off.

4. If not worth the set up at this point, does anyone have suggestions for either making it darker at night with the light or making the light more concentrated on the floor of the brooder?

Thanks!

I have not seen anyone else tackle this, so here goes?

Without seeming to be rude or demeaning, Why would you want to use a MHP on 4 week old chicks? At that age I am weaning mine from heat altogether.  If they were under a MHP it would be on 1 or off.  Just give them a blankie to crawl under.   They are mainly feathered, and will clump together in the cold. Unless you are in Siberia, which is the only place colder than where I live it is a waste of time and money.


I had some three week old chicks out last week, They were not my MHP chicks,  I had them in the shed and I only have so many MHP's to go around.    They were heat lamp chicks at this point.  (Next year I will have more MHPs)   I had the lamp set for about 75-80 degrees. The light went out, It got down below 30 here.  The chicks did fine when I found them the next 'late" morning they were happy as can be.

The whole point of MHP to me is proving we tend to over heat our chicks. They can handle colder.  You are not going to see 10- 4 week old chicks under one hen all night there is not enough room.

Actually, I think I like the blankie Idea I might do that!

They are way hardier than I think you are giving them credit for.   IMHO,  this was not meant to offend I hope I did not.

I think she just happens to already have the 4 week and 2 week chick's together. The 2 week still need a little heat, and she did not want to seperate them.
I would say it would probably work just fine, you would need to show the littles where to go, but betting they use it some.

 

[duluthralphie]

I think she just happens to already have the 4 week and 2 week chick's together. The 2 week still need a little heat, and she did not want to seperate them.
I would say it would probably work just fine, you would need to show the littles where to go, but betting they use it some.

Ahh Ok..

I did not get that.. I would think the 4 week olds would snuggle enough to keep the 2 week olds safe, if you just had a roof so the heat did not radiate away.. hence my blankie idea. I am actually going to try that.

I was thinking the silver bubbly insulation thing with a light pad or blanket over their heads.

 

[bruceha2000]

This is a weird question but...has anyone ever implemented MHP with older chicks?

I have three 4-week-olds and one 2-week old in the brooder, first time chicken owner. I didn't hear of MHP until I had already purchased a heat lamp and had my brooder set up for a couple weeks, so I kind of wrote it off as something to do next time. However, I am just hating having a light on them all night (I've been turning it off during the day when it's warm indoors) and I'm also grappling with the fact that the big girls probably don't need a light AT ALL anymore at this point, yet I have to keep it on for the baby. She usually sleeps closest to the light, tucked under the wing of my RIR (actually quite cute), then the Australorp and Buff Orpington, all in a line.

So here are my more specific questions:

1. Would it be worth it to set up MHP now (we would use it again on our next batch of chicks, so I'm not terribly concerned with the monetary aspect)?

2. How would it work with an older/taller chick?

3. Do you think the baby would even go in there since the big girls likely wouldn't? Or maybe they would since they all like to sleep together? She does sleep alone under the light sometimes during the day if I don't shut it off.

4. If not worth the set up at this point, does anyone have suggestions for either making it darker at night with the light or making the light more concentrated on the floor of the brooder?

Thanks!

I think I would, especially since you plan to brood more chicks (or might need a heat pad for your back sometimes

). The older birds probably won't go in and all the chicks might still sleep together, but the 2 week old might do the usual daytime thing: Be out playing, go under the pad to warm up, come back out to play some more. She may or may not sleep in it at night, I doubt the older ones would since they are fully feathered and unused to the cave. You will likely have to put the 2 week old one inside and keep your hand over the opening so she can figure out that there is a warm pad in there. Might take a few tries since she has been used to a totally different heat source for 2 weeks.

And, a side benefit, you will have already figured out the tweaks for your MHP brooder cave BEFORE you get day old chicks and worry half to death that they won't be warm enough or might get stuck etc.

 

[GranolaGirl72]

My birds are at 3 1/2 weeks now and we are averaging nights at about 38' at this point. We are building our coop this week and I would love to get them out of the garage. I have had the MHP set taller and on medium for the last week and they seem to spend nights sleeping on top of it rather than their roost. Is it time to turn to low and encourage their feathers to grow a bit more and potentially sleep on their roost, or still a little early? They do perch on it during the day when they are not scratching around the box.