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

[Shezadandy]

Yes, I work at our local animal shelter & we use wood pellets for some of the cat litter boxes. That's where I got the idea.
Sometimes once they expand into sawdust, they'll try to eat it. But usually by then they've learned where the food is.

Those chicks were from April 2016, and I can't remember how many I had in that batch. I used the two small Sunbeam heating pads, but I generally I hatched out batches of 20-40 chicks.

The pellets are great! Around here they're in 40lb bags from the farm stores for $5.50-$6.50. Once they know what their food is, I like to wet a section down just enough to break the pellets down, because the chicks LOVE to dust bathe using the sawdust from the broken down pellets. Not talking making it soaking *wet* and causing sick chicks - think of scrunching up a straw wrapper and dropping water to make it grow. As it breaks down, the chicks do a good job scratching around which lets the material do its thing, keeping odor to a minimum, and it dries everything up.

Also does a great job when the chicks inevitably knock their water over- soaks it right up and contains the mess.

 

[Shezadandy]

Okay, good to know. I have about 40 coming and I have two pads and I'm just trying to make sure I'll have enough heat for all of them, at least until I sell some.

One last question, when do you start using the pellets? Day two or so? Do any seem to have trouble walking on them?

What I did for the first week or so is used the shelf liner stuff over the pellets when they're in the little brooder.

Around here the feed stores have their chicks on just the pellets and they do fine. Edited to add: Think about the difference between walking on little round stones on pavement vs. little round stones on a creek bed - so a deep enough layer that it's not just a few pellets over a hard surface!

If it looks a little too rough, you can easily moisten it down (like take a glass of water) so it breaks up some- As long as they know what their food is, I personally haven't had a problem with babies eating the sawdust- and as I said in another post, they LOVE using the fine sawdust to dust bathe. =)

 

[SunHwaKwon]

The pellets are great! Around here they're in 40lb bags from the farm stores for $5.50-$6.50. Once they know what their food is, I like to wet a section down just enough to break the pellets down, because the chicks LOVE to dust bathe using the sawdust from the broken down pellets. Not talking making it soaking *wet* and causing sick chicks - think of scrunching up a straw wrapper and dropping water to make it grow. As it breaks down, the chicks do a good job scratching around which lets the material do its thing, keeping odor to a minimum, and it dries everything up.

Also does a great job when the chicks inevitably knock their water over- soaks it right up and contains the mess.

Perfect. Thank you for all the info

 

[ShrekDawg]

I thought about getting wood pellets but I wasn't sure if they were good to get? There's no chemicals in them? Is it wood stove pellets or something different?

 

[casportpony]

I thought about getting wood pellets but I wasn't sure if they were good to get? There's no chemicals in them? Is it wood stove pellets or something different?

Horse bedding pellets are safe to use.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Horse bedding pellets are safe to use.

Ohhh okay, that makes a lot more sense haha thanks

 

[aart]

But there are some really good info buried in all that chatter. Not just the heating pad info, but topics on this thread have ranged from feeding, to watering systems and a whole lot more.

Very true, why a follow this one and several others.....
.....but if you're a newbie looking for specific topic info that usually cited in a thread title, it's pretty difficult to parse it out.

 

[Shezadandy]

I thought about getting wood pellets but I wasn't sure if they were good to get? There's no chemicals in them? Is it wood stove pellets or something different?

The brands we see around here are "Dry Den" and I think "Nature's Choice" or something like that. I know there's a warning not to put horse bedding pellets into stoves. Not sure about the other way around because I don't own a pellet stove.

Usually we see a couple bags of each brand on the store shelves- at Coastal and Wilco (main farm stores up here) you just have to ask at the register, just like for hay, straw, larger quantities of chicken feed -- they store them in their warehouse and the employees load them.

 

[ShrekDawg]

The brands we see around here are "Dry Den" and I think "Nature's Choice" or something like that.  I know there's a warning not to put horse bedding pellets into stoves.  Not sure about the other way around because I don't own a pellet stove.

Usually we see a couple bags of each brand on the store shelves- at Coastal and Wilco (main farm stores up here) you just have to ask at the register, just like for hay, straw, larger quantities of chicken feed -- they store them in their warehouse and the employees load them. 

Thanks for the info

Do you think tractor supply would have them?

 

[SunHwaKwon]

Thanks for the info

Do you think tractor supply would have them?

I've seen it at my TSC. They usually don't have it by the horse stuff but instead in one of the center displays, but of course all stores aren't arranged the same.