Washed Eggs left unrefrigerated

[junebuggena]

Heat is vital, but a heat lamp used to warm chicks in a plastic storage tub, becomes a chick oven. There are other ways to give chicks warmth, without the risk of overheating them. The heating pad brooder is an example of an alternative heat source.

 

[AllynTal]

You mean you don't need a brooder/heat lamp for chicks? before I got my first chicks, I read several books & websites by "experts." They all said heat was vital. Tell me if they're wrong or not?

As @junebuggena pointed out, they don't need a heated environment, they need a place to get warm. Heating the entire environment with that medieval torture device most people call a brooder lamp turns the usually small space in which people pen them into a chick oven. Chicks don't need the entire environment warm; they just need a place to get warm with they get cold. Using a heating pad as described in this thread:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/956958/mama-heating-pad-in-the-brooder-picture-heavy-update

gives the chicks a place to get warm when they need it.

Here are quotes from other of my posts talking about using the heating pad method:

"I've been thinking about why people are so set on using the lamp and won't consider any other way as viable, and I think it's the same reason that folks have backyard gardens and plant everything in rows. It's a scaled down version of what the big commercial farms do, so that must be the way to do it and no other way is possible. Forget that in our small-scale operation, it's inefficient, makes unnecessary work for us and in the case of chickens, it goes against their natural instincts. If this is how the big commercials farms do it, it must be the way, yeah? I saw early on that growing in rows was not the best approach (for me. If you grow in rows and you're happy, keep doing it.) I have no big equipment that tills, plants and harvests only in a straight line, so why would I try to imitate the big farms who do have that equipment and it's the most efficient way for them to operate? Square-foot gardening and container gardening makes sense to me, and when it comes to chicks, the MHP makes so much more sense for me than a small-scale version of what the big commercial poultry farms do. The big commercial farms couldn't possibly do large-scale MHPs as efficiently as they can do heat lamps. The big farms want large scale production in the most cost-effective operation. I want happy and healthy chickens. Different priorities; different methods"

and

"That's what I did with my last brood and I am never going back. I am never brooding chicks in the house ever again. I see now that brooding in the house with that god-awful lamp (or even outside with that god-awful lamp) is the most ridiculous way to brood chicks. I think that people do it because it's what the big poultry farms do and if the big farms do it, it must be the way to do it, yeah? So the accepted way to do it for the backyard chicken owner must be a scaled down version of what the big farms do. Forget that on our scale, it doesn't make sense and we can't create the kind of controlled environment for them in such a small space. For the small-flock owner, creating an environment more like the natural brooding experience a chick has with a mother hen makes more sense. The chicks have less stress because they can act like chickens and they have a natural day/night cycle. Because they're not under constant light 24/7, they don't overeat which means they don't have the health problems that chicks can have under brooder lamps. I could go on and on. Mamma Heating Pad for the win."

 

[jomoncon]

Thanks for all the info on brooder lamps. I had no idea!

I have some plant heating mats that I use for seed starting in the winter. I have the thermostat to keep the temperature constant. Since these are waterproof, I think I'll use them the next time I have baby chicks.

 

[junebuggena]

A few people have used those successfully to brood chicks. Check out this thread. A ton of info and different ways to do it. Lots of good info.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/956958/mama-heating-pad-in-the-brooder-picture-heavy-update