What's your chick brooder look like?!

[Blooie]

Thanks for that response, @Blooie. I have a couple of “finer point” questions... forgive me if you’ve already answered elsewhere...

1. Can you use shavings and/or hay just as effectively? I don’t have straw.

2. I’m a little confused between yours and Bee’s setup... Do you now advocate putting the heating pad UNDER the wire, and THEN wrapped in a garbage bag and THEN wrapped in a felt pillowcase? OR do you do the three layers and THEN secure it to (which side of) the wire?

3. If the plastic is inside the pillowcase, of course the pillowcase will be a goner from dirt/pee... so how often do you replace?

4. Do I see in your videos/comments that you are combining hatches? We hatch a week apart, and one of the big headaches is the need to proved separate spaces for each hatch. In the picture below, you see that we have long, shallow pens that we can bisect. These are new to us, and I seem to be seeing that you have found a way to combine younger and olders, or is that just when they get really big—7-8 weeks? I have found that I can combing 7-8-9-10 week olds pretty easily without mortality/pecking issues, but when they are 1-6 weeks old, it seems they must be brooded separately. Thoughts?

I answered your PM....too hard to type it all again. It's easier for me to answer one place or the other. The last few days I've only been on in the morning, so I don't respond immediately because I don't know the questions have been asked if I ain't here.

 

[Storybook Farm]

I answered your PM....too hard to type it all again. It's easier for me to answer one place or the other. The last few days I've only been on in the morning, so I don't respond immediately because I don't know the questions have been asked if I ain't here.

Right; I thought you might want to copy/paste here... and I didn’t know which was the better place to get you. THANKS!

 

[Blooie]

Well, if I'm on BYC then I see messages and posts so either is fine. Just hard to keep up with both. I could copy and paste I guess...not enough breakfast tea this morning to think of that! I'm a nice lady - just not always the brightest crayon in the box.

 

[Ghostnuke]

For those of you that use shavings in the brooder - how do you... clean it? In my mind I would just stir it up so the poop falls to the bottom and then eventually just replace it all after it seems dirty?

 

[Molpet]

For those of you that use shavings in the brooder - how do you... clean it? In my mind I would just stir it up so the poop falls to the bottom and then eventually just replace it all after it seems dirty?

I stir and add as needed.. last 2x I used pine pellet bedding. The first time i used it i poured 1/2 a bag in and when I went to clean it out a lot on the bottom was still good. So the next time I covered the bottom and added as needed. I used less.

 

[moniquem]

I saw this set up and am going to copy it.

 

[Storybook Farm]

Reporting back: I’m a convert to the Mama Heating Pad (MHP) method, and don’t plan to ever go back to heat lamps, with the exception that as I’m acclimating chicks, and when temps are freezing during the day in my unheated barn, I use a heat lamp NEAR the MHP to keep the chicks’ water liquid.

I did keep them in the house for their first 5 days to make sure that they knew how to use the MHP, find food drink, had no pasty butts, etc. All systems were go, and we moved them yesterday at noon. Here they were this morning: a week or less old (staggered hatch) and happy after their first night in an unheated barn with snow falling after we woke up.

Eight were warming up under the pad...

And two were out eating and drinking...

Again, the heat lamp is their “sunshine” because the barn is relatively dark, and because it keeps the water liquid when outside temps are below freezing. As I type, snow is falling and ambient temps are at 28°.

 

[Blooie]

I love a happy ending!

 

[Storybook Farm]

I’m so grateful that you chimed in on my post on page 2 of this thread, @Blooie! Your approach was perfect, and your wisdom so winning that I couldn’t help but look deeper into your method. SO. GLAD. I. DID.

We are hatching early and weekly this season for the first time, and I knew I needed to use the unheated barn to brood. It made me nervous coming up to it; now I have an inexpensive, effective way to keep groups of chicks heathy and happy outside, and growing naturally. SO GLAD! Thanks again!

 

[Blooie]

You are very welcome! But you should also remember that I didn't come in until kinda later, after several people who have already been using Mama Heating Pad and brooding outdoors had already spoken up. @aart has actually been doing this a year longer than I have, with a slightly different setup but the same goal - chicks who are self regulating and without a heat lamp on them 24/7.