Using heated pad for Brooder

[amysue2012]

LOL not to get off track but I just noticed Im chillin now instead of just get-in out of the brooder

Sorry to get off track just wanted to share the moment

 

[magsrags]

I've also used the heating pad method with my glass 10 gallon fish tanks for hatchlings. I do place barrier padding for safety and only heat 1/2 the tank underneath with the pad. No lights when raising just a few chicks is really convenient. They are in an otherwise very sunny room thankfully.
I have 2 @ 2 weeks old right now sleeping just fine in a 10 gallon tank. The size is so convient for viewing/brooding/moving/cleaning for the first few important weeks. course it isn't for more than a little few at a time.

 

[estpr13]

I am using a heating pad right now with 16 two week olds. It has three settings and I normally use the middle setting. I keep it under a rubber shelf liner so the chicks don't peck at it and can keep their footing during the first week.

Their brooder is just a 22" x 22" cardboard box with the heating pad and 'faux hen' over it. (a 4" x 8" kitchen counter wire rack with a rag over it so that they can hide under it and escape from the light and keep warmer if they want.)

The heating pad only takes up about ½ of the box so if they get too warm they can move to the non heated sections.

I didn't use a heating lamp for the first week. I kept them in my bathroom with the shower water in the tub to help keep the humitity up. I also used the room wall heater to keep the heat up in that room to around 80 degrees for that week. It worked just fine.

The second week I have them in a 3' x 4' card board box with a heating lamp (60 watt light) directly on top of their glass quart watering jar and the heating pad off to the side. Some times they use it and sometimes they don't.

I put the lightbulb on the water jar because if I didn't they would fly up and perch on the quart jar then poop into the water.

 

[ozzie]

Like I said a lot of people use light bulbs, I find then obtrusive. My chicks sleep great without all the lights. BTW - I also sleep better without all the lights

Yes so I got a great idea off another poultry forum where someone put a lightbulb inside a terracotta pot so that the bulb is totally enclosed and the wiring for the bulb comes out of the drainage hole on the bottom of the pot. Then they place the pot upside down in the brooder and turn the light on. The pot radiates heat from the bulb, stops the light from coming out and the chicks sleep lying beside it. It allows the chicks to get used to night/day normally and not all day and night lighting. It's simple, cheap and works.

ozzie​

 

[the1much]

i use a heating pad under my 100 gallon tank for my savanah monitor,,,, does that count?

 

[Chickachika]

I have successfully used heating pads as brooders instead of heat lamps. Anyone else use them? I put paper towels on the heating pads and change them a few times a day. I do not like using lights. I think that the chicks sleep better as I provide natural daylight with warmth using the pad method.

I too am using heating pad & it seems to be working great. 10 day old salmon faverolles. What settings did you start with? Hi or medium?