MHP FAIL :-(

[Scotty from BI]

Why not just cut thin piece of plywood to the dimensions of the heating pad, put the heater pad and the board in a pillow case and tape it to the board on the ends and then diagonally with duct tape. To suspend it you could just cut a two by four diagonally to creat the sides with a slope back to front. You can then just add additional pieces of wood say 1x2" or 2x2" pieces to raise it as needed.

 

[Scotty from BI]

Actually you don't need to tape the bottom because the pillow case will hold the pad flat to the plywood. Just pull the pillow case tight on the top and staple it to the board you have a perfect mhp cave that will be soft on the bottom, hold it's shape and can be elevated easily. If you don't want to use nails or screws you could even weight the plywood down with a small brick. Wait, I have another idea. Put a dowel on top inside the pillow case and spin it so it gathers the material of the pillow case tight. Then staple the pillow case to the dowel to hold the pad in place firmly against the bottom of the plywood.

I will go out to my garage tomorrow and put these ideas together to see how it works. If it does, I'll take some pictures for you.

 

[Scotty from BI]

Wait, I just had another idea. Why not use an ace bandage to hold the pad to the plywood. They are non toxic (no sticky tape residue on heat), cheap, disposable and stretchy and no tools required. Theoretically, you can eliminate the pillow case since only the tops of the birds will ever touch the pad which should not transfer too much yucky stuff to the pad and you keep the softest possible surface facing down. You could put a plastic cutting board on top of the plywood so you could just rinse off bird poop from time to time.

 

[AllynTal]

Why not just cut thin piece of plywood to the dimensions of the heating pad, put the heater pad and the board .....

Folks have done similar. There are a couple of wooden frames that people have built and shown in the long, meandering MHP thread. The idea is the same: affix the heating pad to a frame so the chicks can get under and warm themselves. Folks take the basic premise and use materials at hand to create what works for them. Show us yours when you construct it.

As far as the top goes, I find using puppy training pads on the top works brilliantly and makes cleaning no-fuss.

 

[Scotty from BI]

Thanks for the heads up. I could only get about 150 pages or so into that long thread and did not see anything like that. I will revisit and look for ways to improve. There are some brilliant people here and I hope to learn more from them.

 

[AllynTal]

Thanks for the heads up. I could only get about 150 pages or so into that long thread and did not see anything like that. I will revisit and look for ways to improve. There are some brilliant people here and I hope to learn more from them.

Oh, I know. That thread has a LOT of good info in it, but goes off-topic for pages at a time so it is hard to get through.