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

[frenchiegirl21]

Hello all!

I found this thread a while back, but I finally put together my own mama heating pad! I used a really old (like 10+ years probably) heating pad, a piece of old guinea pig cage, some leftover tiles from when we redid our bathroom, and a piece of flannel with press n seal on it. I put all of that on top of a piece of cardboard with shavings on it. The chicks love it! As you can see by the photo, since they are all under it

Hopefully tomorrow I can take some better pictures of the set up!

 

[loli]

FWIW, to save anyone else the trouble, this pad DOES have an auto shut off (even tho description says it does NOT). That means it shuts off after 2 hours. And Amazon seems to be claiming it is not returnable, although I'm arguing that... https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000FGDDI0/ref=yo_ii_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Okay, question time for members, past and present, of the Btoody Brigade. Um, you may wanna sit down for this one!

Have you ever had, or heard of, any chicks "burning their feet off" from standing on MHP? I've been faced with this concern - or should I say "hysteria" - on another site twice now. One was warning people to be careful - she had a friend who tried MHP and her chicks' feet were burned "and fell off". Another man, totally out of the blue, simply issued a warning that chicks' feet could be badly burned from them standing on top of it, ut I got the feeling he was repeating the other woman's post. I answered both as calmly as I could, considering that I was fuming, saying that with all of the hundreds of people using this. AND being so good about letting us know what issues they'd had, no one had ever reported such a thing.

Okay, GO

Inspired by a poster a few days ago, I decided to modify my MHP In a way that was a bit easier to adjust that just the hardwire. I have a lot of chicks right now (50 + 42 more coming next week) but I use the smaller pads since I like the slide control and not having to worry about turning off auto off or having it not come back on by itself. Plus, I get more square footage for the money. So, yesterday I bought another pad ($13) and three cookie cooling racks (10x16) for $3.50 each.





At home depot I got some small bungies for $2.50. I went to TSC for the leg hardware since you pay by the pound. I got short (2.5"), medium (3.5") and long (5") bolts for each (that is, 6 bolts of each size since I have three pads) as well as 8 nuts and 8 washers for each pad, which came to a little over $6.





I got three different sizes because 1) they were only partially threaded and 2) I raise guineas, bantams, and standards so I need a bit of height flexibility to accommodate the different size babies.

I put the pad on the side without the rack's built in feet because they interfere with it laying flat since the rack is 10" wide but the pad needs to hang over an inch on each side. I used three bungies on each though two would hold it fine.



Here is one of the racks with legs installed and the order of the hardware.







I have about .5 to 1" of height adjustability with each size bolt. Again, fully threaded bolts would be better but this was cheaper. I used 3/8" hardware to save on weight and cost but you can certainly fit 7/16 or probably 1/2"

Hiya BYC peeps! First post here but have been lurking for a month or so. Thanks so much to the many wonderful people here for generously sharing your knowledge & fascinating experiences!! We have babies coming in a couple of weeks & like another recent poster I was googling for safer alternatives to heat lamps, & ran across this thread. I read about 50 pages and jumping right on it & ordered the sunbeam heating pad from amazon listed in the link above by jennyf. Thankfully it seems as though I received the correct model # that does not have the auto shut-off.. phew, crisis adverted!


Blooie, I'm sad to hear fear mongering is making its rounds concerning the safety of this method. In my search for alternative heat sources I remember reading an amazon review saying that the heat mats (the type that are pressure activated & can also be hung on a wall), had givin a bunny blisters on it's feet. I wonder if that, or the heat plate mentioned by jennyf that burned her poor baby, could be the source of the rumors. Somewhere in this thread there was also mention of a chick that lost it's feet to frostbite (IIRC?) & they used the MHP to care for the chick.. I'm taking a wild guess that, that may be partially to blame too... hmmm


SunHwaKwon, Brilliant use of the bolts for the different elevations!!


Thanks again to everyone here! We will be putting the MHP to use in the very near future & I am sooo relieved to find something other than a heat lamp (& it seems to be better all the way around to boot!)

 

[The Golden Egg5]

Do the chicks feather out faster using this method? This is my first batch of chicks and they are 1 week old and are already getting their shoulder feathers. They seem to be feathering out very quickly. I really need them to be able to be moved the first week of April because I have another batch of chicks coming in and they need to use the brooder. Do you think they should be ready by then?

 

[Blooie]

Hiya BYC peeps! First post here but have been lurking for a month or so. Thank so much to the many wonderful people here for generously sharing your knowledge & fascinating experiences!! We have babies coming in a couple of weeks & like another recent poster I was googling for safer alternatives to heat lamps, & ran across this thread. I read about 50 pages and jumping right on it & ordered the sunbeam heating pad from amazon listed in the link above by jennyf. Thankfully it seems as though I received the correct model # that does not have the auto shut-off.. phew, crisis adverted!


Blooie, I'm sad to hear fear mongering is making its rounds concerning the safety of this method. In my search for alternative heat sources I remember reading an amazon review saying that the heat mats (the type that are pressure activated & can also be hung on a wall), had giving a bunny blisters on it's feet. I wonder if that, or the heat plate mentioned by jennyf that burned her poor baby, could be the source of the rumors. Somewhere in this thread there was also mention of a chick that lost it's feet to frostbite (IIRC?) & they used the MHP to care for the chick.. I'm taking a wild guess that, that may be partially to blame too... hmmm


SunHwaKwon, Brilliant use of the bolts for the elevation!!


Thanks again to everyone here! We will be putting the MHP to use in the very near future & I am sooo relieved to find something other than a heat lamp (& it seems to be better all the way around to boot!)

Welcome to the Broody Brigade! Your dues are photos of your chicks and/or setups.....you get bonus points if you can show the little stinkers using MHP. (Hey, I just made that up at the moment, but I like it!)

Rumor stuff happens, and we are pretty used to some folks who just can't see this working. Some change their minds real quick, others lurk for a bit and then dismiss it. That 's okay - we have no problem with that at all. We all know this is a huge leap of faith and way outside the box, so we just share what we know and let them make up their own minds, which is as it should be!

I was the one who had the chick with the frostbitten feet. That was our special Scout. But he was raised under MHP with a totally different setup, simply because I didn't know what I was doing at the time and I was winging it. It worked well for him, but wouldn't work worth beans for more than one chick, I don't think. He was brought in and raised on MHP well after his frostbite, and the cause of him being slightly disabled wasn't MHP - the frostbite blisters were deep and caused underlying tissue to die. His feet were doomed before we even noticed the frostbite in the first place. Not related at all, but you could be right - it might be where that rumor got started if someone added 2+2 and got 5. His full story has a link in my signature. Kind of a nice reminder of a special boy. Oh, and he had his feet....they never dropped off. He just had useless toes.

 

[junebuggena]

Do the chicks feather out faster using this method? This is my first batch of chicks and they are 1 week old and are already getting their shoulder feathers. They seem to be feathering out very quickly. I really need them to be able to be moved the first week of April because I have another batch of chicks coming in and they need to use the brooder. Do you think they should be ready by then?

They do feather in faster with this method. It's because they aren't being overheated and the chicks get a full night's sleep, unlike chicks that are under a lamp 24/7. I usually have chicks out in the grow-out coop by 4 weeks old.

 

[Blooie]

Do the chicks feather out faster using this method? This is my first batch of chicks and they are 1 week old and are already getting their shoulder feathers. They seem to be feathering out very quickly. I really need them to be able to be moved the first week of April because I have another batch of chicks coming in and they need to use the brooder. Do you think they should be ready by then?

Yes, they do feather fast, which is one of the things we like about it. If they are ready or not depends on a lot of things...the temperatures out there in the coop and in your area, how protected they are from damp and wind, how well they've feathered in, and if they've been off the heat completely and acclimated before they go out. You can make a huddle box for them....that seems to help lots of folks get chicks used to being outside, but I'd never tell someone to just put them out there. That's just not my call, and if I did say that and they didn't do well I'd feel terrible.

Me,. I'm heartless. They come out of the shipping box or the incubator and they are out there in about 24 hours. I start them right outside.

 

[The Golden Egg5]

They do feather in faster with this method. It's because they aren't being overheated and the chicks get a full night's sleep, unlike chicks that are under a lamp 24/7. I usually have chicks out in the grow-out coop by 4 weeks old.

ok thank you! I was starting to worry that they wouldn't be ready, but I feel a little better. Is the huddle box just a box with hay and shavings? Or something else? Sorry I'm new to this whole chicken thing

Yes, they do feather fast, which is one of the things we like about it.  If they are ready or not depends on a lot of things...the temperatures out there in the coop and in your area, how protected they are from damp and wind, how well they've feathered in, and if they've been off the heat completely and acclimated before they go out.  You can make a huddle box for them....that seems to help lots of folks get chicks used to being outside, but I'd never tell someone to just put them out there.  That's just not my call, and if I did say that and they didn't do well I'd feel terrible.

Me,. I'm heartless.  They come out of the shipping box or the incubator and they are out there in about 24 hours.  I start them right outside.  

 

[Blooie]

Put that apology back in your pocket and save it for when you really need it!

I always get confused but it's either @aart or @azygous -or both- who make huddle boxes. It's a cardboard box with a chick sized opening in one side, and you set it out there upside down on the floor of the coop. You can fill the floor of it with hay or straw, and I think she used some kind of reflective insulation on the inside. I'm hoping someone will wander in here and help me get my foot out of my mouth now...... You might have to kinda stuff the chicks in there and hold your hand over it until they figure out that it's dry, safe and getting warmer in there, I don't know.

At four weeks they SHOULD be feathered enough to go out, as mentioned by @junebuggena

 

[BIggoMamma]

They are so adorable! You have a smart idea! Thank you for sharing your experience

 

[Blooie]

They are so adorable! You have a smart idea! Thank you for sharing your experience

Happy to share...we all are. Can't take credit for the idea, though....after messing with a heat lamp for my first batch of chicks I decided to either find a better way or never get more chicks again. I was that serious. So after little poking around the internet, and picking my good friend @Beekissed brain, the MHP thread was born. I first saw a video by Patrice Lopatin, and I knew Bee had actually done some incubating using a heating pad, and then when I learned that she'd also been brooding chicks this way I figured I'd found the solution to my problem.

Glad to have you, and welcome to BYC!