Heated dog dish as nest

[3riverschick]

Hi ,
I have one lone pullet. I need to keep her warm. I'm not in a position to use a heat lamp .I had an idea and could use some input. I looked online and found some large heated dog dishes. it's extremely cold here in Western Pennsylvania .what do you think would happen if I was to take the heated dog dish and fill it with some wood chips and let this pullet sit on it .she has decided to go broody anyway .she is not sitting on any eggs. nor do I have a rooster so any eggs She lays are not fertile. she's not laying right now. I could use some input. let me know what you think
Thanks,
Karen

 

[21hens-incharge]

Interesting concept.....

I wonder how hot it would get.....

May be worth trying out before setting her on it. I think my biggest concerns would be if it has warnings about it running while dry and her over heating since broody girls tend not to move much.

 

[3riverschick]

Well I did some looking around and it looks like the manufacturer (K&H) says not to fill the dish with chips. now they do make a chicken heating pad but it can't be placed on chips either. it would need to be placed on a wooden platform and then that above the chips . then the chicken would just sit on it . looks like I still have a problem
Karen

 

[Labradors]

How about a heated perch? Anyone use one?

Linda

 

[3riverschick]

Hi Linda ,
I don't know about heated perches. but I did find one comment that said they had taken it and filled it three quarters ofull ( this was the big bucket not the dog dish)... but they had filled it three quarters full with sand ..
and they put their chicken water on top and it kept the water warm . I wonder if I were to fill the dog dish with sand ...if then she can sleep on the warm sand ?think that would work?
Karen

 

[ToniTalley]

How about filling it with wet (and keep it wet for safety) sand up to the rim, then put a nest box on top of that so the bottom of the nest box is literally sitting on the sand. You would have to put something waterproof between the wet sand and the bottom of the nest box.That way you can have chips/straw in the nest box. I think fire is the reason to keep the chips or straw out of the bowl.

 

[PirateGirl]

Heated dog dishes generally are thermostatically controlled and will automatically turn on around 34*F, just above freezing. The other thing is that they don't really supply heat in the way other sources would. They are designed to keep water just warm enough to not freeze, so 34*-40*, but don't put out much heat in the way you are thinking. They wouldn't really supply a chicken with any additional warmth.

 

[PirateGirl]

You could look into building a cinder block heater.

 

[Blooie]

I kinda got stuck on the part where she has gone broody but isn't sitting on any eggs. Are you absolutely sure she's truly broody? Without anything resulting from her broodiness, she'll sit and sit....and sit........and sit.... Many of them just don't give up until hatch, and if nothing hatches they'll just keep waiting and trying. Now, that might not sound like a big deal, but when you think about how much being broody takes out of them, combined with the cold temperatures, I'd be worried about her overall body condition by the time all is said and done.

As for warming her, well, I have no answer there. Sorry.

 

[Mrs. K]

No, I don't think this is a good idea. I am pretty sure that this could very easily cause a fire. Almost always, adding heat to chickens is very dangerous. Many, many people have had their coop burn down.

One would do better to keep her dry and out of the wind. And one must make sure that the bird has the option of leaving the heated place if too hot.