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

[bruceha2000]

Ah, but three days of the week they DO live in the same house, Bruce!

Yeah but that is 4 days they don't have to "put up" with each other. Time to "get off" each other's nerves When DD2 would come home from college for a week, she and DD1 could get along fine for a few days, then it started to unravel now and then. Now that DD2 has graduated and is home full time, they get pissy at each other more often.

 

[Blooie]

Note to those of you using MHP with a washable heating pad. Um, don't forget to wash it when you're done with it. <sigh> Things got so hectic and out-of-whack here, what with multiple trips to South Dakota, Ken's shoulder surgery, my swallowing issues...just all of it....that I didn't realize I'd simply put the used heating pad in a plastic box, planning to wash it first chance I got. Just remembered it this morning, months after I stuck it in there. Opened the box and needed CPR. Yeah. Gotta say, it did wash up just as nicely as it would have if I'd done it when I should have, but I could have saved my delicate nasal passages some grief.

 

[NorthTexasWink]

One of the reasons I like using the seedling mats is the simplicity of cleaning them thoroughly. A few swipes with a Clorox wipe or some bleach water on paper towel and let it dry. Done.

 

[Blooie]

I just don't trust seedling mats get warm enough to do the kind of brooding I do - outside in the run during Wyoming "springs" where temps get down into the teens and twenties. But I can sure see that they'd clean up easily and do the job for indoor or warm weather outdoor brooding. As for cleaning the heating pad, just unplug the cord and toss the whole thing in the washer. Done. Of course, you have to remember to DO it and not let it sit in a plastic box in the sun all summer long, like some dummies have done.

 

[aart]

I've always covered the pad with a piece of wood or cardboard on top,
so poop never touches the pad and it never needs to be washed just dusted of chick fuzz.

 

[Blooie]

Oh, I cover mine too. But I used old towels so some stuff kinda sorta leaks by. Not enough to hurt anything, and when a towel gets soiled I just pull it off and put on a different one. I bought a ton of thin, threadbare towels at Goodwill the first time I used MHP, and between them, the old ones we no longer use (if I can hold them up and see through them they are gone!) and the ones the kids give me I've got scads of them. I just like the soft surface for the chicks when they get on top, I guess, because I have this thing about wanting to duplicate a broody as closely as possible. But as with all things MHP, whatever works and gets the job done for each person, right?

 

[bruceha2000]

Here are some of the 7 chicks raised for 3 weeks by MHP in the brooder part of the coop. Now 14.5 weeks old. Cassiopeia (EE) on the left with Anais, 5 Y/O Faverolles. Note the lack of a large size difference! Can't easily count my chickens as 11 adults and 7 juveniles anymore.


Trouble (Barnevelder cockerel), Betty and Veronica (Welsummers). Under the bush are one of the Exchequer Leghorns and Trill (Barnevelder pullet)


I took a video of them foraging. You might notice that Trouble is a lot bigger than the leghorns.

 

[RowanTheRed]

I am ready to start planning for more chicks and after the first time of having the brooder in my house, I really don't want to do that again. I have a question for all of you that have been using the MHP outside in your coops that were not outfitted for electricity. Did you simply run an extension cord to the coop or did you somehow hook it up to some solar device?

We now have a nice big hen house / coop that is 8x10 so I feel like we have plenty of room to put the brooder in there. And I have a pretty good sized pet rabbit cage that I can use for the brooder. My only problem is that there is no power out there so I would have to at least run an extension cord out there.

Second question. My chooks have a run, but it hasn't been fully attached to the coop yet so they currently free range in the fenced in back yard. The 2 that are laying go back in to use the nesting boxes to lay, but other than that they don't really go in there until it's time to go to bed. So would the new chicks get enough integration with the older ones?

 

[aart]

Did you simply run an extension cord to the coop

I have a 100' heavy duty outdoor rated extension cord plugged into a GFCI outlet at the house.

 

[RowanTheRed]

I have a 100' heavy duty outdoor rated extension cord plugged into a GFCI outlet at the house.

that is most likely what we would have to do as well