Second guessing my brooding pen / integration plans

[aart]

I'd almost forgotten until aart mentioned adding extra straw around the heating pad on really cold nights - I throw a folded wool blanket over the heating pad when it was to get down below freezing. That tends to focus more heat downward to where the chicks are.

As for 24/7 light, one of the biggest benefits of the heating pad is the absence of light. Again, the broody hen analogy - she has no running lights that go on at night so the chicks can pig out all night on food. They don't need to eat at night. They quickly establish a day/night rhythm and they fall into a pattern of eating all they require during the daylight hours and they sleep all night. This is nature's way.

Agrees.

 

[WesleyBeal]

Agrees.

I agree with the idea. I still want to know more about his reasoning, though. We can't follow that logic forever without letting our chickens roost in trees and dispense with coops.

I know that's not being suggested; just saying that we make some decisions for a reason, and now more than ever I want to know why he thinks they should have light for the first 72 hours.

 

[WesleyBeal]

I have 3 three week old chicks I tried to put under a seriously broody Silkie which she immediately rejected. They were only 3 days old at the time. So I put them in the brooder and just now brought them out to raise them in the coop. They go into my broody busting wire cage at night with heat lamp . in day they roam the run while the bigs are free ranging. Today my big girls would not shut up about being separated from their nesting boxes so i let them all into the run. No one made a bother about the chicks except the Silkie. She pecked at them. Its nice to know that may be normal. I'm wondering if at 4 weeks I should try integration?

If I understand what you're saying, sounds like you're about there already!

 

[burlapfootstool]

I agree with the idea. I still want to know more about his reasoning, though. We can't follow that logic forever without letting our chickens roost in trees and dispense with coops.

This is the person who said "There was little information on free-range poultry back then, and most of it was wrong."

The whole world was free-range chicken. How the f can you not get data.

 

[aart]

Quote: Yeah, well, even the best chicken 'gurus' do things that don't make sense at times.
A person might have some really good experience, equipment and techniques,
doesn't mean everything they use or do needs to be utilized or adhered too.
And some of the 'old ways' do become logically obsolete.
Like all info, you need to sort through, it apply your own logic for your situation, and do what feels right to you.

Was thinking of your 'second guessing'...first time round is always hard with live animals.
You'll figure it out, get thru the hard times and decisions.
I often tell myself, in the deep southern twang as I first heard it........It'll be alright.

 

[WesleyBeal]

I agree with the idea. I still want to know more about his reasoning, though. We can't follow that logic forever without letting our chickens roost in trees and dispense with coops.

I know that's not being suggested; just saying that we make some decisions for a reason, and now more than ever I want to know why he thinks they should have light for the first 72 hours.

Curiosity led me to buy his book for more information on his thinking.

A link to where he mentions this on his website:
http://www.plamondon.com/wp/prepare-care-baby-chicks/

I haven't finished it yet, but in his book (https://www.amazon.com/Success-Baby-Chicks-Selection-Mail-Order/dp/0972177000) he talks about chicks being attracted to light, and about chicks getting lost before they've learned where everything is in the brooder.

If the heated area is lit, it shows the chicks where to go. He advises against using red bulbs:
Quote:
In another part he says "Once they know where everything is, they don't need much light to get around, but when everything is new and strange, they are better at figuring out the world around them if it is well illuminated."

Again, I'm not saying I think this means chicks should have light 24/7 for the first 3 days. I'm figuring out what his argument is for making that case.

It does have me thinking about coming up with an attractor light for underneath the heating pad at first, to teach them where to go....

 

[aart]

Light can be an attractant, I've used one under the heating pad myself...helped.... kinda.
I also use a light(100W) over the feed/water station the first day or two after hatching, to make sure they are eating. drinking, and properly mobile.
But by mid-late afternoon, that light goes off and they get shoved under the pad at dark if they haven't found their way on their own.
Just keep it in mind as a tool, but I wouldn't get too hung on the 3 days of 24/7 lighting...might be more important if you're raising large numbers of chicks.

 

[azygous]

Light as an attractant makes quite a bit of sense. I believe aart's right that your author's context for the three days of light is meant more for large numbers of chicks.

When I was a kid, we would occasionally visit my uncle's commercial poultry farm. He had thousands of baby chicks in huge barns, a sea of little tennis balls as far as the eye could see. We would go out with him in the morning and he would pick up hundreds of dead chicks that had been trampled and suffocated by the hoards of other chicks. Now I wonder if part of those casualties was due to the dark at night. He didn't use electric lights, but propane brooding hovers.

I use a small night light or flashlight when teaching chicks to go into the coop at night after first being moved in. It really does help. Chicks get scared of the dark and can't find their way. It probably does help new chicks learn their way around. But if you're using the heating pad system, I would just use a small night light, not a bright 250 watt flood light.

 

[WesleyBeal]

His own operation has 75 chicks to a brooder house. His work does appear to be directed at "small" producers of eggs for local markets, or that is where his experience is coming from and hence what his approaches are most applicable to.

Not to suggest he has nothing of use to say about my "small," 40 bird flock, but yes, need to filter his approach to allow for the fact that I'm not brooding multiple houses with 75 birds in each!

 

[WesleyBeal]

Got the call from the post office about 6:15 this morning.

They're using the heating pad well. They come out to eat/drink, then dash back under to get warm.

Had to pile a lot of bedding underneath so it was close enough for them to be able to press their backs against it.

Right now I have a heat lamp (securely) working above the pen also, trying to warm up the area a little. It was 40-something this morning, low 50's now. So far it's making it about 5 degrees warmer in their pen than it is outside of it. 61.5 degrees at their food at last check.

Will be warm today and tomorrow (low 60's), then cool for a while (40's - 50's daytime highs).

Hoping to keep it warmer in their pen the next couple days at least, so they don't have to spend ALL their time under the pad.