Hydronics in built in brooders?

[Pineconechick]

Hey everyone! My husband is a plumber and we are building a new chicken coop. He does hydronic heat for a lot of houses and ends up with small leftover loops that you can’t do much with so he thought he would set up hydronic heat in the chicken coop

In the center (human area) of the coop I will have some built in brooders that are raised off the floor.

MY QUESTION IS:
Could you effectively use a hydronic heat setup somehow through each brooder to replace a heat lamp? I would so much prefer not to use a lamp! I have considered those heat plates but I have several brooders and they would be a bit too expensive.

 

[Kiki]

I've never heard of hydroponic heat. Do you have a picture of the leftover loops/how it's set up to share?

 

[Pineconechick]

Hydronic heat.
I don’t have a picture but it’s heating through pipes in the floor...

For the brooders I would probably set some pipes through the brooders that they could huddle under...just not sure, I would also have to cover the pipe probably so they can’t burn themselves...

 

[Pineconechick]

Let me see if I can get this example picture I found to load

 

[Pineconechick]

Oh yay it went

 

[Kiki]

Autocorrect got me.


It would probably have to be something that you can raise and lower so the chicks could fit under it.

 

[Pineconechick]

Hmm...don’t really think I could raise and lower it much...maybe a little but it will be pipes

 

[AnotherKim]

I don't know, but it sounds like a cool idea.

 

[Ghosty]

It would be doable. Run the pipes under the floor of the brooder width wise on one end, so they can get away from the heat if they want to. Make a little shelter like a mama heating pad uses so they can snuggle and get warm. You would want to make sure it isn't too hot. Insulating the pipes could help with that.

 

[Pineconechick]

It would be doable. Run the pipes under the floor of the brooder width wise on one end, so they can get away from the heat if they want to. Make a little shelter like a mama heating pad uses so they can snuggle and get warm. You would want to make sure it isn't too hot. Insulating the pipes could help with that.

Thanks for the response! Some reason using them on the floor (like with normal hydronics) and adding an extra comfort in the brooders hadn’t occurred to me ‍
What would you use as the mama hen comfort? I saw someone use a feather duster...would that work?