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

[Blooie]

Necessity and all that..... They look pretty cozy under there now! I'm sorry that you lost some, though. They sure look tiny!!

 

[dpenning]

Actually I didn't! They are scary tiny little things but they are tough little Buggars! Once they warmed up under the lamp they were fine. Amazing. I have I couple that I'm not sure will make it long term but so far so good!

 

[DonnaFreak]

Howdy y'all!!

Boy am I ever glad to see this site back up!! So on Saturday I removed the wire dog crate from the coop, and the chicks have full run of it now. Sunday I went to check to see how they were doing and found all of them panting in the heat. So without being able to jump on here and ask for advice, I set up a nipple waterer in the run and caught them all one by one and put them out in the run. They LOVED it!!! So when I got them rounded up and put back in the coop that night, I took another plunge and turned the MHP completely off. I left it inside the coop though because 2 of the bantams and 1 Polish chick were still going under it at night. They have been completely off the MHP for 3 nights now! So I'm going to take it completely out of the coop today.

I am a bit worried though because when I went out to check on them last night, they were all huddled up in one corner. They were 4 weeks old on Monday, so I know they're ready to be off the heat, but are they old enough now for the 3 bantams to be able to avoid suffocation by piling? I've seen references on here to a huddle box, but can't they pile in the corner of a box just as easily as in a corner of the coop? I'd love some advice!

Donna

 

[aart]

They will huddle in a 'pile' for 'safety comfort' rather than for heat...whether that pile is endangering the bantams I couldn't say.
The huddle box is to hold some heat and as a wind break if temps are cooler.
You'll have to decide if they need a wind break or not....but if they were panting I'd say probably not.

 

[lpyrbby]

Oh how I've missed you BYC...

My turken chicks are now 6.5 weeks old and they've been off heat for about a week now, I think? The last couple of nights, they've flat out refused to sleep under the MHP contraption, even when I pretty much doubled the height. I think these little guys really want to integrate with the bigs...but...

This past weekend, I moved my 8 adults into the carport coop with the 6 NYD girls I have left, with the 18 turken and brabanter chicks in their in-coop brooder. I left everyone in the coop for a good 36 hours (it has run space) before I was able to dismantle and reassemble the kennel panels for their run. The last couple of days, I've locked all 14 bigs out of the coop so the turken chicks can come out and run around. They're checking out the roosts and being little wild things

This weekend, I'm going to put hardware cloth and bird netting around the bottom portion of the kennel panels and then TRY to have the chicks come out with the bigs. The middle girls have been with them a few times, one of them who has shown she's ready and willing to stomp them :/ Well, one of my adults has that same attitude.

I'm nervous. I have various things the chicks can jump on and try to get away, but...that's assuming they have the sense to use them. I know this is deviating away from the MHP, but, like I said, I'm nervous and need to throw it out there. The chicks are cramped in that brooder pen now and need to integrate. I kinda wish I had a feel for what was normal vs what's excessive. Hopefully it won't be as chaotic as I'm imagining in my head.

Oh...another reason they need to move out...I'm getting 6 chicks I won in a raffle, probably next weekend. I need them to go in that brooder pen

 

[Blooie]

Rather than making sure they have things to jump "on" to get away, how about making sure they have things to go UNDER? If they jump up, the Bigs can follow. If they have a place that they can get under but that's too small for the Bigs to get into, they can escape whenever they feel the need.

I use @azygous portal system in the brooder, and I'm so glad I copied that! Just little doors that they can fit through but the others can't follow. I also have a huge, hollow log, cut lengthwise with the cut side down and they can duck under there if they are too far away from their brooder to use the portal doors.

There will most likely be some pecking, that's to be expected. The hard part is knowing when to intervene and when to let it play out. After all, the chicks have been their own little society and so have the adults.....the chicks need to learn when they have overstepped their boundaries.

 

[lpyrbby]

Rather than making sure they have things to jump "on" to get away, how about making sure they have things to go UNDER? If they jump up, the Bigs can follow. If they have a place that they can get under but that's too small for the Bigs to get into, they can escape whenever they feel the need.

I use @azygous portal system in the brooder, and I'm so glad I copied that! Just little doors that they can fit through but the others can't follow. I also have a huge, hollow log, cut lengthwise with the cut side down and they can duck under there if they are too far away from their brooder to use the portal doors.

There will most likely be some pecking, that's to be expected. The hard part is knowing when to intervene and when to let it play out. After all, the chicks have been their own little society and so have the adults.....the chicks need to learn when they have overstepped their boundaries.

I don't have anything for them to get under, at this point. I thought about dragging an old sheet of plywood into the coop to lean against one wall, but they're getting to be of size that to keep the bigs out, the chicks would have to do some squeezing. My girls seem pretty determined to get into wherever they want to go.

I'm trying to figure out a way to prop open their brooder pen door where they can get in and out, but the bigs can't. One of the middle girls already likes to go invade that space when she can because she prefers their waterers (She was actually flying into their pen during the day until I added more lattice to block it off - she couldn't get back out once she got in).

I'll do some more looking around tomorrow to see if there's anything else I can put in there, so they can go ahead and get used to it before I try letting the birds mingle. Nona is my biggest concern. She loves to eat the feathers off the birds she snipes (but she's not a feather eater otherwise) and she's relentless. But her relentlessness is going to prove invaluable when the cockerels start coming of age. She makes the boys fear her and they will listen to her when she tells them off. It's a fine balance, I guess.

 

[Treerooted]

So I didn't loose any more chicks, but they all wanted to sit on top of the MHP and it couldn't handle the weight. So I just made some more adjustments and laid it on the ground. Has been working great

In the future I may consider laying the heating pad on the ground to begin with, and hang some feather dusters (or similar) from the top of the box.

 

[Blooie]

You might also try a huddle box. Just a cardboard box, open end down, filled with whatever you use for litter. Cut a hole in the front for the Littles. If you put it in the current location of your brooder, they should find it and use it quickly but if not you may have to gently stuff (um, is it possible to gently stuff?) them under and hold your hand in front of the opening?

Can you cut a hole in the side of your brooder pen wire, then frame it with wood screwed to both sides of the opening with a little plywood flap to open and close? I did it on my kennel/brooder, and the beauty is that it can just stay there for subsequent groups of chicks....just latch it down when they are little and then latch it up when you start integration. This is is the system I copied, and it works well because the framing is a visual clue to the chicks where the safety is. Just a thought.

 

[lpyrbby]

You might also try a huddle box. Just a cardboard box, open end down, filled with whatever you use for litter. Cut a hole in the front for the Littles. If you put it in the current location of your brooder, they should find it and use it quickly but if not you may have to gently stuff (um, is it possible to gently stuff?) them under and hold your hand in front of the opening?

Can you cut a hole in the side of your brooder pen wire, then frame it with wood screwed to both sides of the opening with a little plywood flap to open and close? I did it on my kennel/brooder, and the beauty is that it can just stay there for subsequent groups of chicks....just latch it down when they are little and then latch it up when you start integration. This is is the system I copied, and it works well because the framing is a visual clue to the chicks where the safety is. Just a thought.

View attachment 550491

That portal idea is also something I'm trying to figure out lol I still feel like, with their size now, that a few of the bigs would still manage to get in. We have plenty of spare wood from our coop builds to use. I'll ponder my options when I go sit with them again tomorrow evening