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

[KiminPA]

Please allow me to make a suggestion. If you don't want to be dependent on electricity, how about a cardboard huddle box lined with "space blanket" material? It would reflect back Silkies' body heat to them as they huddle in the box. The whole point really isn't to heat the chicken but to prevent the chicken from losing precious body heat. You would need to glue the fragile material down real well so busy beaks can't rip it up.

You would need to teach the chickens to use the box, but that shouldn't be hard if you toss some meal worms inside.

Great idea. I like that a lot!

 

[saraem]

Just wanted to check in and thank you all for your advice on integration. Within a week of my last post we were able to permanently open the panic doors to the brooder space. The hens still will chase the littles if they get too close, but they're perfectly capable of dashing into their safe space or getting up high where the bigs can't reach them. Hilariously, they've been sleeping on the roost in the henhouse and the big girls are still sleeping in the run. We'll see what happens when it gets cold enough to force them back in.

So, next question - at which point do you remove the brooder turned panic room altogether? I'd really like to get it out of there, but as I mentioned, the full-grown hens still chase the littles. At what point do they usually just all get along? Chicks are 8 weeks now.

 

[azygous]

Just wanted to check in and thank you all for your advice on integration. Within a week of my last post we were able to permanently open the panic doors to the brooder space. The hens still will chase the littles if they get too close, but they're perfectly capable of dashing into their safe space or getting up high where the bigs can't reach them. Hilariously, they've been sleeping on the roost in the henhouse and the big girls are still sleeping in the run. We'll see what happens when it gets cold enough to force them back in.

So, next question - at which point do you remove the brooder turned panic room altogether? I'd really like to get it out of there, but as I mentioned, the full-grown hens still chase the littles. At what point do they usually just all get along? Chicks are 8 weeks now.

Don't rush it. Chicks need every one of those weeks from hatch to adulthood to work up self confidence and find their place in the social order. The portals usually accommodate up to almost three months. That's when I close down the panic room system.

However, it can take up until point of lay for youngsters to find their places in the flock and not be hounded. What I do is put an old card table in the run, and after the youngsters no longer fit through the portals, they still have a safe place to eat and to rest where the older flock won't harass them.

Mine are going on seven months now, and I still give them a bowl of food in the morning in a safe place so they start the day off getting enough to eat. After they start laying, then they'll need to fend for themselves.

 

[Blooie]

I guess I'm a worser chicken mama than my good friend @azygous I start integrating at 3 weeks and by the end of the 4th week the pad is gone, the brooder is gone, and with it the panic room is gone. I do have a big hollow log, open side down, in the run that they can fit under. The Bigs can't get under there because they are, well, too big, but that's the end of the concessions for the Littles. Part of the Bigs chasing the Littles is simply them teaching the little pests that there are boundaries, and as long as they do so without blood being drawn I'm fine with letting them sort it out for themselves.

 

[aart]

I fall somewhere in between azygous and blooie.
I brooded chicks in coop starting at one week, opened tiny doors at 4 weeks, and took down the 'panic room' wall at 6 weeks.
They still had there own feed, water and roost.....worked out fine.

BUT we all have larger coops and runs than you...and larger flocks...both of which help I think.
Smaller spaces make for harder integrations....no where to run, no where to hide.
I've read recently that they need a good 3-4 feet apart...kinda makes sense....that border of 'personal space'.
You'll have to use your judgement based on your observations, every situation is different.

 

[Blooie]

I fall somewhere in between azygous and blooie.
I brooded chicks in coop starting at one week, opened tiny doors at 4 weeks, and took down the 'panic room' wall at 6 weeks.
They still had there own feed, water and roost.....worked out fine.

BUT we all have larger coops and runs than you...and larger flocks...both of which help I think.
Smaller spaces make for harder integrations....no where to run, no where to hide.
I've read recently that they need a good 3-4 feet apart...kinda makes sense....that border of 'personal space'.
You'll have to use your judgement based on your observations, every situation is different.

Yep, yep and yep!!

 

[saraem]

I like the card table idea. It would work well as the littles go on top of their brooder area already, and because of how close it is to the bottom of the henhouse, the big girls can't/won't follow. That would be a nice next step as I could still feed them up there, but I would gain back all the integrated floor space in the run.

Thanks for the reminder not to rush things, @azygous - I'm sure it can be done much earlier, but in my particular situation I may be in the same boat of waiting until 3 mos. They do wonderfully all day when they are out in the yard, but since there are just 2-3 daylight hours now during which they are locked up they frankly just haven't had much practice coexisting in a small space.

 

[bruceha2000]

I love this setup... I don't think I will ever go back to raising chicks in the garage with a heat lamp My chicks are just 12 weeks old and are mostly roosting in the nest boxes now, so I will soon take the heating pad out. It's down to the '1' setting anyway. My question is, how soon do people take out the 'escape hatch' for the chicks to get away from older birds? Mine go outside and are around the older birds although they don't interact. I did have one that I think was killed by one of the older ones (found it dead, one puncture wound at the base of the neck, nothing else), but no problems since. If they are roosting up off the floor, are they ok without their private area?

At 12 weeks they were done with needing heat 8 weeks ago.

I think you want to discourage sleeping in the nest boxes. Bad habit and makes a poopy mess in the nests. My last batch moved up to the roosts at about 8 weeks. Likely it was partly because there isn't a lot of room in a nest box for seven 8 week old chicks and a large mama.

 

[ChickNanny13]

I used to use heat light until I came across Blooie's thread, now use MHP

I used to keep the heat light on until they were about 6wks during the winter, now turning the MHP off when they're 4wks but leave the MHP in as a "huddle cave". There is a definite difference in the chicks, MHP produces alot calmer & quieter chicks

 

[Hbohm74]

I'm in week two with my MHP and 5 baby chicks and it's working wonderfully! My Easter Eggers are feathering out quickly.I can tell by the noises and chirps the chicks make that they are happy. Here's some photos of my experience with the MHP so far:


Frame with heating pad.


Just folded over the thick wires to hold in place.


Covered with flannel pillow case.


Used some string/cord to secure, as heating pad and pillow case were slightly sagging.


Cut hole in pillow case for heating pad plug in.


Glad press and seal to keep it clean on top.


Old towel to cover, and shot of underside of heating pad.


Golden Sexlink Bjork (1 week old) standing at heating pad opening. Nipple waterer in foreground.


Chicks hunkered down for a nap, and pressing back to MHP for warmth.


Sleepy time.


Chicks sitting on MHP in the sun (2 weeks old).

Enjoy!