Safe heat source and Brooder set up?

[Little Coop on Salt Creek]

I would respectfully question that chicks were lost just due to them moving away from the heat. Chicks need a place to escape constant heat - watch a broody hen with hers. Even during a winter hatch, she doesn’t warm the entire space they are in, she just warms them directly when they go under her. The rest of the time, even at just a couple of days old, they are out exploring, playing, eating whatever she finds, and drinking out of mud puddles! They regulate their own needs. So I think that the chicks lost had another issue going on.

I raise my chicks, using Mama Heating Pad, outdoors in a wire pen within the run, even when our springtime temps here in Northwestern Wyoming are in the 20s, dropping into the teens, with sideways blowing snow. Every batch, every time, every year. And I’m far from the only one who has figured out the benefits of doing it this way. It duplicates a mother hen closer than any other method. Chicks can be fully integrated with the flock by 4 weeks and off all heat. It’s simply a heating pad without auto shutoff, a frame of some type, (I use a bit of scrap fencing, others use cookie cooling racks or similar) and you either drape the pad over the frame or use bungee cords to secure the pad on the underside of the frame. Most people find it runs them less than $30.00 total. And commercial heat plates are also great, although I like the cave system better as it’s closer to a Mama hen.

With hot tea in hand.. waking up slowly ..

 

[Blooie]

I’m ahead! I finished my hot tea! (Obviously my little spell-checker-dude hasn’t, though.....three times he tried to change it to ‘teat’. Stoopid dude!)

 

[Little Coop on Salt Creek]

I don't know if all heat plates have temperature settings (if you get one that does, I'd probably dial it down each week until they're off heat completely). Main thing you'd need to do is raise the plate as the chicks grow. They need to be able to comfortably touch their backs to the plate, so adjust the height as they grow to allow for that.

I had a lady who recently bought Australorp, Easter Egger and Silkie chicks from us. She was using a heat plate. Raised it to accommodate height growth in the LF but forgot to increase the bedding under part of it to account for the still shorter bantams.. she starting loosing the Silkies before we figured out the heat issue

 

[Welsh Ducky]

I have used the mama hen heating pad (aka the cave) since we began chicks in 2017. I love using it, even though the setup is not as plug and go as the heat plate. This year however, my ordered chick batch was big enough to warrant 2 caves (aka the mama hen heating pad).. so I broke down and purchased a heat plate. Hands down, the chicks prefer the cave! It’s their preference to lay in, on and in front of. I know the plate is used because they poop on it and they do climb under it too but by far they like the cave.
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Maybe I could hang something over the heat plate to make it more like a mama hen or cave?

 

[Blooie]

Maybe I could hang something over the heat plate to make it more like a mama hen or cave?

I guess some have, but the plates actually get hotter than the heating pads do, and that would concern me.

 

[AquaDuck]

I got a chick heating plate last year, and they love it! Very versatile heat source, and much safer than the dreaded IR bulb.

 

[casportpony]

I'm also one that uses a heat plate.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I had a lady who recently bought Australorp, Easter Egger and Silkie chicks from us. She was using a heat plate. Raised it to accommodate height growth in the LF but forgot to increase the bedding under part of it to account for the still shorter bantams.. she starting loosing the Silkies before we figured out the heat issue

I'm sorry for her losses but I'm glad you all figured it out. At least in the future you'll know to recommend that folks make extra adjustments if brooding chicks of different sizes.

I guess that's one advantage of a heat pad over a plate, because it doesn't have to lay flat. I bent wire mesh in a wide U shape and attached the heat pad to that, so the smaller chicks could snuggle under the lowest parts that were quite close to the bedding, and larger ones could sit further from the low point and still stay warm as well.

 

[Little Coop on Salt Creek]

I'm sorry for her losses but I'm glad you all figured it out. At least in the future you'll know to recommend that folks make extra adjustments if brooding chicks of different sizes.

I guess that's one advantage of a heat pad over a plate, because it doesn't have to lay flat. I bent wire mesh in a wide U shape and attached the heat pad to that, so the smaller chicks could snuggle under the lowest parts that were quite close to the bedding, and larger ones could sit further from the low point and still stay warm as well.

Yep, that is how I do mine too, in a wide U shape! It is a learning curve for me still that not everyone who takes chicks home will assume the same things I do.

I think that is a huge selling point for the mama hen heating pad over the heating plate. I think it is more versatile to work with, just my opinion.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I think that is a huge selling point for the mama hen heating pad over the heating plate. I think it is more versatile to work with, just my opinion.

Agreed, and last time my hubby had back pain I told him to go get that same old heating pad we'd used, take off the Press n Seal and the washable cover, and stick it in a pillowcase. Voila, back to a human heating pad!