wooly hen - revisited

[Mrs. K]

This spring I branched out into meat birds. I also got some laying chicks at the same time, but within days, I realized that I needed to separate my meats from the layers. And the meats grew so fast, that the brooder was rapidly too small. With a blizzard on the Dakotas, limited me to the garage, I just added another tote. Two totes for meats, (7 and 8 birds) and one for the layers (10 birds). I did this today, day 10. I started with two totes, and had a mix of chicks in each.

This time instead of the very expensive wool, ( I used up my scrap yarn last time) I just took an old pillow. Cut it into half, and sewed up the raw edge. Then bent the still over large pillow in a upside down U shape and put in a box. The cardboard box, I cut 4 doors, one on each side. The pillow is the top.

When one thinks of a broody hen, I really don't think she adds much heat to the chicks, heat rises. What she does, is traps the heat the chicks produce themselves. I use these fake hens at night starting the third night in the garage, temperature around 40 degrees. The chicks snuggle in, about 12-13 under each one, immediately quiet down and stay that way all night. (I have been getting up to check heifers, so I know). Today, I made the third fake hen, as I needed more space for my meats.

I have been leaving the heat lamp on during the day with a warm spot and farther away from the lamp a cool spot. Today, I am turning those off and on through out the day. Leaving the garage light on. We should be melted off tomorrow... when I get home, they will go outside for a while. If the weather holds, they should be in the coop sometime this week.

I am beginning to think we have vastly over estimated the amount of heat a chick needs. These are cheap and easy to make.

Mrs K

 

[Mrs. K]

 

[Mrs. K]

I went out to check on the chicks, the little tiny layers (compared to the meats) were huddled, so I put the lamp back on them. I don't have quite enough room in the tote to leave the fake hen in during the day. The meats (so much bigger) do not even seem to notice.

The first few times, I had to put the chicks in there, but I want them to do this so last night, I just shut off the lights in the garage, and the heat lamps, and stood there with a flashlight, and nearly all of them crawled in and went to sleep. I had to encourage a couple to go in, as I was getting cold.

 

[aart]

When one thinks of a broody hen, I really don't think she adds much heat to the chicks, heat rises. What she does, is traps the heat the chicks produce themselves.

She traps her own heat too tho...
...and she definitely 'adds' heat or she wouldn't be able to incubate eggs

How much space is under that pillow?

 

[Mrs. K]

6 inches+/-

 

[lazy gardener]

I like it.

I do agree, chicks are more resilient than we give them credit for. And, I do believe on average, that more chicks are killed by being overheated than are killed by being chilled. I think there is a fine line between a group of chicks with your broody pillow being able to produce sufficent heat and ending up in a heat deficit. 4 chicks may not be able to stay warm, while 8 or more may be just fine. It would be interesting to use a thermometer probe in your box to see how warm it is!

Do you use anything to keep the pillow from falling down on top of the chicks? With chicks and their suicide urges, I wonder how likely they might be to get themselves in trouble without the pillow secured?

I have found myself wondering if it would be possible to make a double decker MHP by placing a box over the top of the MHP to hold the heat in. this way, they would have their standard cave. But, there would be a cooler zone above the cave, with the top of the box to hold the heat in. The box it'self would need to be quite a bit larger than the MHP with lots of open space on all 4 sides. It would also need monitoring to ensure that the chicks in either zone did not pig pile too much, nor get overheated. It would be kind of like an Ohio Brooder with the heat source sandwiched between the 2 levels.

 

[Mrs. K]

I worried about dampness, so I put them wooly hen in the open topped tote. I think the high side walls, keep the draft off, and the birds can come out if too hot, or like in a real hen, stick their heads out.

The pillow is stuck in a U shape, because it is longer than the box. I thought about gluing it, but it really worked just fine. It is not quite as wide as the box, but again, allows ventilation.

Mrs K