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

[Beekissed]

I agree. Getting them to the ground where they can stay cool from the coolness of the earth can help, as well as the increased air flow. Also, adding an additional dark blue or green tarp over that white billboard tarp may help increase the shade potential in that hoop coop, while getting the sides up for more air flow will help as well. I use push in stakes for electric fencing to keep my flaps up and provide more shade potential beside the coop. Using the blue/green heavy duty tarp was an incredible difference from when I used a brown/silver tarp on the hoop coop....much, much more shade produced from those colors for some reason.


This pic shows the tarp and the stakes that raise the flaps for me....seems to work better at putting shade into the coop than rolling up the sides, as the sun can boil in there when those sides are merely rolled upwards.

 

[Blooie]

I have the 25 chicks in a hoop coop, covered with a billboard tarp. THe brooder is sitting on an overturned stock tank, because I didn't want to get on my hands and knees every morning to deal with feed and water,e tc. So, it is about4 1/2 ' above ground.

It gets hot! the air temp in the hoop coop on the floor of the brooder was easily almost 90. I am trying to roll up the tarp up the sides to get some more air flow, but, the brooder has those 12' sides - so no draft at all. Having a little pasty butt (3 or 4 chicks out of 25, which I am attributing to the heat.
They are only 5 days old.

I have the heating pads on high at night - it was 44 degrees this morning. I lowered them to medium (only three settings) this afternoon when the sun came out and things were heating up - I would say 20 or so of the chicks stayed out of the MHP all afternoon, but a few were snoozing in there.

THink the sun and the hoop coop are adding a complication with lack of air flow. I am a little worried about the work week when I leave when it is 40 0r 50 degrees, out, and when it gets too hot in the coop by noon and I am gone....

Was it 48 degrees outside or was that in the brooder this morning? If it was in outside, you'd be surprised at how long a covered hoop coop holds heat, so it was probably warmer than that in the brooder. I agree with you - it's too warm. You don't need to turn the pad to High at night - there are 25 of them and they put out body heat in addition to what the heating pad is giving them. You can leave it at medium, pull the pad up higher, and see how they do. If you going to leave that billboard tarp, then during the day, turn MHP off completely.

If you can, I'd remove that billboard tarp. It's warm enough now. I know lots of people use them but this time of year it's really too much. We took our plastic off and got our landscape fabric tossed up over the hoop. Keeps most of the rain out, (rain runs right off the curved surface) provides shade, and air can circulate through. Warm air flows up and out instead of running into a solid barrier and just hanging there. There are two types of landscape fabric - the black one that looks kinda like black fabric particle board, and one that is black on one side and brown on the other, and it has tiny perforations in it. That's the one we use. I have 6 week old chicks that are fully integrated with the adults and have been for a couple of weeks, and I have 2 week old chicks (including granddaughter Katie's 7 Silkies) in the brooder pen. The brooder is just a wire pen within the run, with MHP at one end.. Our overnight temps are still in the upper 40s, low 50s and they are doing well. They can handle a little nip in the air better than overwhelming can't-go-anywhere-to-escape-it heat.

Finally, I know it's hard when you have limited mobility to tend chicks. So some kind of upright wire pen would get the chicks down low to the ground where it's cooler and save your back. Just partitioning off one little part for their use would make a world of difference for you and for them. I use a dog's x-pen. One side opens and I can walk right in.

*** Aand, I got a phone call while I was typing this and didn't get back to it right away. I see @Beekissed has offered you her usual good advice as well. I just love her "wings" on the outside but I'm afraid with our average 45 - 50 mph summer breezes the whole run would be found in Cleveland!

 

[Beekissed]

Blooie, you'd be surprised at how this outfit handles high winds....nothing budges. Seriously. I've had this same setup, with the tarps and wing flaps since I designed this coop 4 yrs ago and we are on a ridge top here, so some pretty fierce winds at times. Some storms so bad that it took down whole trees in the yard....huge trees....one right next to the coop. The tarp and flaps didn't move at all. The design of the hoop just allows the winds to move right over the coop and the flaps being half mast like that protects the interior from swirling type winds.

As for bending over the brooder.....in a hoop coop many things get real simple. Hanging a nipple bucket for those chicks from your wire roof/walls can keep you from having to stoop to clean/fill waterers....you can just pull up the rope and sit the waterer on a taller surface for refilling. As for feeding....if you wet your feed, you just plop it into the feeder from a distance. No stooping required. Same with the bedding...using deep litter allows for a no fuss brooder, so a flip of the pitchfork or a few handfuls of dry material on top of the bedding can make brooder cleanup a breeze.

Working smarter, not harder...it's my credo.

 

[Blooie]

Blooie, you'd be surprised at how this outfit handles high winds....nothing budges. Seriously. I've had this same setup, with the tarps and wing flaps since I designed this coop 4 yrs ago and we are on a ridge top here, so some pretty fierce winds at times. Some storms so bad that it took down whole trees in the yard....huge trees....one right next to the coop. The tarp and flaps didn't move at all. The design of the hoop just allows the winds to move right over the coop and the flaps being half mast like that protects the interior from swirling type winds.

As for bending over the brooder.....in a hoop coop many things get real simple. Hanging a nipple bucket for those chicks from your wire roof/walls can keep you from having to stoop to clean/fill waterers....you can just pull up the rope and sit the waterer on a taller surface for refilling. As for feeding....if you wet your feed, you just plop it into the feeder from a distance. No stooping required. Same with the bedding...using deep litter allows for a no fuss brooder, so a flip of the pitchfork or a few handfuls of dry material on top of the bedding can make brooder cleanup a breeze.

Working smarter, not harder...it's my credo.

You're probably 100% right, Miss Bee! (Doggone it, you usually are!! Teehee) I'm just gun shy after watching our gas barbeque grill dance across the sidewalk!

The very first year we had the hoop, we used that landscape stuff. Loved it. Then last year we did the tarp. At first we used one of those wretched silver ones....you know, blue on one side and silver on the other - and thought the silver would reflect the heat away. It didn't. Baked in there, remember you and me talking about that? So I went with the blue and green one. It was much better, just as you say, but this year we opted to go with the landscape fabric again. I just love using it, love how much cooler the run stays, and really love that if it gets a tear in it it's cheap cheap cheap to replace just that one section.

And I'm glad that you taught me about using those other back and time savers - hanging feeders and waterers mean I just yank the chains and bring them to me instead of me bending over to take care of them. Deep litter means no brooder to clean. I don't do the FF though. Gone way too much in the summer and Jenny just won't do it when she takes care of the chickens. She's going to have her hands full taking care of Kendra this summer, so I hate to complicate filling the feeders every three or four days and the waterers once in a while. Ken, Katie and I leave for our South Dakota trip on the 17 and will be gone until the 28th. Jen has to head back to Denver for Kendra's recheck and tube removal on the 26th - 28th so there won't be anyone to tend the chicks and chickens for 2 days. So FF is the only part I don't do. But with big hanging feeders it's not that big a deal.

Until you entered my chicken world and gave me a good kick in the hiney, my credo was work harder, whine louder!

 

[Beekissed]

That one sounds familiar.....maybe you picked that one up here on BYC?

The most frustration I experience on reading threads on this site is from those kinds of posts....where the folks have over complicated their work load/set ups so that they are constantly in crisis and can't seem to figure out why. I'd like to streamline every coop and barn in America so that folks can get their choring done with the minimum fuss and work...ergonomics is my passion.

I'm constantly trying to improve things here in that regard....getting older and less mobile, so all of that suddenly becomes MUCH more important to me.

 

[woods79]

good morning or evening where ever you may be, we get 8 Buff Orpington on Thursday or Fri. Today I am doing a test heat up on my Mama Heating Pad setup

 

[Beekissed]

good morning or evening where ever you may be, we get 8 Buff Orpington on Thursday or Fri. Today I am doing a test heat up on my Mama Heating Pad setup

Woods, if you wish to test heat that pad, I'd place that thermometer right up against the heating pad, for that's where the heat is truly measured and where your chicks will be feeling the heat. They won't get much radiant heat from where your thermometer is located in these pics.

Nice looking setup, BTW.....streamlined and functional.

 

[woods79]

Woods, if you wish to test heat that pad, I'd place that thermometer right up against the heating pad, for that's where the heat is truly measured and where your chicks will be feeling the heat. They won't get much radiant heat from where your thermometer is located in these pics.

Nice looking setup, BTW.....streamlined and functional.

thanks for the info, as you see we are new to this entire thing

 

[Blooie]

Woods, if you wish to test heat that pad, I'd place that thermometer right up against the heating pad, for that's where the heat is truly measured and where your chicks will be feeling the heat. They won't get much radiant heat from where your thermometer is located in these pics.

Nice looking setup, BTW.....streamlined and functional.

Nice and simple! Always like to see that! Bee is right about the temperature. Most of us don't bother. The chicks are warmed by the heat up against their backs, and a thermometer on the ground under it doesn't tell you anything, really. I did it when a friend asked what the temps under mine were - temp was 82.9 in a 69 degree room, measured where your thermometer is located now. My curiosity was satisfied and I've never looked again. The chicks are really accurate tattletales, so they'll let you know what they need and want.

 

[lazy gardener]

I have the 25 chicks in a hoop coop, covered with a billboard tarp. THe brooder is sitting on an overturned stock tank, because I didn't want to get on my hands and knees every morning to deal with feed and water,e tc. So, it is about4 1/2 ' above ground.

It gets hot! the air temp in the hoop coop on the floor of the brooder was easily almost 90. I am trying to roll up the tarp up the sides to get some more air flow, but, the brooder has those 12' sides - so no draft at all. Having a little pasty butt (3 or 4 chicks out of 25, which I am attributing to the heat.
They are only 5 days old.

I have the heating pads on high at night - it was 44 degrees this morning. I lowered them to medium (only three settings) this afternoon when the sun came out and things were heating up - I would say 20 or so of the chicks stayed out of the MHP all afternoon, but a few were snoozing in there.

THink the sun and the hoop coop are adding a complication with lack of air flow. I am a little worried about the work week when I leave when it is 40 0r 50 degrees, out, and when it gets too hot in the coop by noon and I am gone....

Lala: Are those chicks sharing the coop with any other flock members? If not, you could just turn them loose in there, and set MHP on the floor. Otherwise, as others have suggested, partition off a section for them, and get them on the floor. I'd not worry about "drafts" b/c they will bu under MHP when they need heat, and Mama Broody certainly doesn't have a draft stopper when she has her chicks out and about! If it's a windy day, they get blown about a bit!!!

thanks for the info, as you see we are new to this entire thing

You're already ahead of the curve by choosing to use a HP instead of a heat lamp! The other thing that will put you at the top of your chick game will be to have a brooder that provides plenty of room for them to move around and play. I hate to see chicks brooded in rubber maid totes, because there's very little room for them to act like chicks want and need to act!