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

[Leahs Mom]

@aart
What is the purpose of the glue? On mine - that I patterned after yours and another persons, I have a nut under there to hold it steady.

On top is the wing nut. Below is a washer and a regular nut. I think you're putting the glue between the grate and the washer?

Could you just do a washer and nut so that it is easily adjustable? Or am I missing the purpose of the glue?

 

[Leahs Mom]

PS: I can easily turn both the wing nut on top and the nut below to adjust height as needed.

 

[aart]

What is the purpose of the glue?

It holds the Tnut to the grate, washer helps hold more glue and stiffen attachment.
I just spin the bolt to adjust.....
..... don't have to loosen, then tighten, any nuts when adjusting.

 

[Minky]

Hi you guys--- I found this thread and you all look like youve raised a lot of chicks before!
I am expecting 45 chicks (25 mid April-meat birds-- and 20 late april -egg birds).

Do you find the mama heating pad to work better than a heat lamp? I was maybe going to try heat lamp for meat birds and Mama pad for egg birds (since I have one of each). I figure the 10 day old meat birds will be way bigger than my day old egg birds so most likely will raise them separately.

A heat lamp seems easier than constructing a Mama heating pad cave......especially for 20 chicks! Is it worth the extra effort?

This is my first time. Thanks

 

[bruceha2000]

Is it worth the extra effort?

You bet.

1. There is the safety factor, you don't need to read many "how the heat lamp burned down my coop" stories to want to avoid that possibility. Certainly it doesn't happen often but once is too many times.
2. The birds get a natural day/night cycle and there is no "transition" to that when they no longer need supplemental heat.
3. They don't get overheated which can happen if you don't have a pretty large area so they can get away from the lamp.

You might want to make a hover brooder for that many meat birds. My understanding (NO experience) is they feather slower and grow a LOT faster. I would use a radiant heat plate rather than a heat lamp. If you DO use a heat lamp in any fashion BE SURE it is bird safe. One member lots most of her flock when they unwittingly used a teflon coated bulb. The birds died from inhaling the chemicals that the hot bulb put out.

20 layers is quite a lot, BIG family or planning to sell eggs? TYPICALLY (tell 5 of my 6 April 2017 girls!) pullets will lay through their first winter and have their first adult moult the next fall. Unless given supplemental light (14ish hours) they won't start laying again until February or March. This yields 2-3 months of NO eggs. Then they start back up and if they are even halfway decent layers, you'll be looking at minimally 7 dozen eggs a week through the summer. I started with 12 in 2012, got 7 more in 2015 (had some losses in the first batch by then) and 6 more last April. There are currently 17 in the flock. Most of the 5 remaining 2012 girls didn't lay much last year though 1 had an excuse, she was raising the new girls for 2 months starting when they were about 3 weeks old.

 

[Minky]

Hi
Well we currently have 7 hens (6 are laying) and its a perfect amount of eggs for us. We get maybe 4-5 a day, the odd day we get all 6.
I only ordered 20 because I wanted 4 new birds-- 1 of each breed. In Canada, there is a 5 chick minimum per breed.(and not many places to order from!) I've pre-sold a bunch of them already, and the others wont be hard to move. I just want to make sure they are all hens, then Ill sell them- maybe around 8 weeks. Don't wanna sell off 4 and end up with #5 being a cockerel!! I dont mind keeping another male around, but Im not sure what our rooster will think of it. We just got him, and he's still in quarantine. Im not sure of his personality just yet, tho he's a handsome boy!
My current hens will be molting next fall/winter and so we will see a decline in production, so I wanted to have some young hens to fill in the gaps. We have a ton of space and we quit our jobs to be hobby farmers, so a few extra birds is okay with me. And if I need to give some away or sell them- I can get $5 or $6 a dozen for organic rainbow coloured eggs, so Im not opposed to that if it comes to it.

What do you mean one of your hens was raising the new girls starting at 3 weeks? I would love it if that happened to us. We have one Auracauna that was broody in Jan, and I hope she goes broody again so maybe I can slip some chicks under her....!! How did you manage to get your hen to raise your chicks??

 

[bruceha2000]

OK, got it, not getting 20 for yourself!
You may not be able to tell a cockerel at 8 weeks. The Barnevelder cockerel we got in April was supposed to be one of two pullets. He was obvious at 3 weeks, easily seen by comparing him to his "sister". You definitely don't want 2 roosters with 11 hens. The poor girls would be run ragged.

What do you mean one of your hens was raising the new girls starting at 3 weeks?

She went broody at the wrong time I had it ALL planned out. Zorra (Black Australorp) and the 2 Faverolles all go broody in the spring. Zorra went broody in mid May 2015 so I quick ordered 7 chicks for the first week of June. After a false start the night of the day they arrived (it wasn't yet dark ENOUGH so they went back to their temporary MHP in our bedroom) I got them shoved under her the next night and she raised them for 8 weeks. One of the Faverolles was her "daytime assistant". My records show she or the Faverolles (if not all 3 at some time) will be broody in April so I ordered the 2017 chicks for the end of April.

Clemence went broody right on schedule but she would NOT stay in the nest in the brooding area even with 4 plastic eggs. I didn't want her trying to raise them in a nest box 20" off the floor, no way to get food and water to them. Thus the chicks went into the brooder area with a MHP cave. Zorra went broody soon after they arrived but she wasn't interested in having them so I put her in the broody buster. She got out and a couple of weeks later, when the chicks were 3 weeks old, she decided she wanted to be their nanny. They still had their cave in the brooder area and she was never their "heating pad" put she did hang with them, protect them and expand their horizons outside the areas they had found by themselves in the first 3 weeks.

If you DO have a hen that is broody just before the chicks arrive, and for 20, you would need TWO, you may be able to stick the chicks under them. It has to be at night, when the hen is asleep and so dark you can't see a darn thing. Have someone with a low light flashlight to light just enough area that you know which end of the hen is which and slip a chick under a wing from the back. The hen will move around some but as long as she doesn't attack them go to the next chick. In the morning she will wake up having "hatched" chicks. I went out the next morning WELL before it was light enough for Zorra to wake up in case she didn't like the "invaders" and attacked them but all was well. She went from "I am hatching eggs" to "I am raising chicks" ... for 2 months. Then she laid an egg and went to "who the heck are you and why are you bothering me?" in the blink of an eye. She used to protect them on the roost and at the feeder, but became one of the "this is MY space" girls just like 'that'. The Faverolles stuck with the chicks for another few weeks.

 

[luckyplucky]

@luckyplucky What an awesome set up. I am still trying to figure out how to set up a brooder area in my pen. My temps are drastically different than yours as I am in the 20's during the day and single digits at night, so I am holding off till 4 weeks. I would not worry about your night temps. My chicks are in a wire dog crate in my unheated spare room that is 50's during the day and 40's at night since they cam out of incubator with only MHP for heat and they are doing great will be 3 weeks old on Thursday.

Did you figure out a solution for your temps? Even though we are starting a cold snap where it's frosty at night, I know I can't really complain about our mild temps. Born and raised CA girl here, so I can poke fun at myself for shuddering when it goes below 65 and above 75! Haha.

 

[NNYchick]

Did you figure out a solution for your temps? Even though we are starting a cold snap where it's frosty at night, I know I can't really complain about our mild temps. Born and raised CA girl here, so I can poke fun at myself for shuddering when it goes below 65 and above 75! Haha.

I’m trying to accumulate them to colder temps so I’ve been opening the window in there and it’s getting down in the 40’s -high 30’s and they are all doing well with it and still all over the brooder and eating.

 

[Minky]

OK, got it, not getting 20 for yourself!

If you DO have a hen that is broody just before the chicks arrive, and for 20, you would need TWO, you may be able to stick the chicks under them. It has to be at night, when the hen is asleep and so dark you can't see a darn thing. Have someone with a low light flashlight to light just enough area that you know which end of the hen is which and slip a chick under a wing from the back. The hen will move around some but as long as she doesn't attack them go to the next chick. In the morning she will wake up having "hatched" chicks. I went out the next morning WELL before it was light enough for Zorra to wake up in case she didn't like the "invaders" and attacked them but all was well. She went from "I am hatching eggs" to "I am raising chicks" ... for 2 months.

This is what I am really hoping for!!!!! I want them to be raised by my hens..... but will set up a brooder as well.

What an amazing foster mother/auntie thing your chickens have going on. Sounds wonderful!!! I like the idea of checking on them in the early am to see if its all going well. Good idea!!!!!!! I will do the egg/chick swap out at night if I am as lucky as you.


What does everyone think of the hoover brooder? Good option? I wonder if I could just leave them overnight in the barn with it... we have straw. I am afraid of fire......
so many options. I think I have to not think about chickens for a few days.

Back to picking out grape vines and peach trees for me......