Brooder help!!

Hello I am going to be getting baby silkies soon and I have eggs in the incubator that will be hatching in a couple days so I need a brooder ready so I went today to get chicken feed and got chick starter and a plastic tote that is 30 gallons. I am wondering what other people have done to a plastic tote to make a brooder pics would be helpful thanks

I really need help so I can get the brooder ready for the chicks thanks for any help

I got hardware cloth and put it around my dog kennel and they are in love with the space

My chicks start out in a storage tub brooder in the unused shower downstairs. This is for the first couple of days, while they are still getting their legs under them.

Then they move out of the container, and get whole shower. This is for the first week or two, to keep a close watch on them.

Then they move to the kiddie pool in the unfinished room next to the garage. The heat lamp attaches to the framing of the wall, warming the left side of the pool. They have the whole room to run around and play in.

When they are feathered in enough, they move to the integration coop. After two weeks, they are ready to be added to the adult flock.

If I had a way to run electricity to the coop, they would brooded there from the start.

Well they are going to be in the chicken coop but the others won't be able to hurt them or even see them so I will run the heat lamp up through the rafters and down over the brooder tub but I just need to know how to cut the whole and stuff for the light with out it burning the plastic I might use a regular 70 watt bulb instead of using a 250 watts red heat bulb my dad won't let them inside because he has to go to work and there isn't any were to put them were he can't here them so they have to stay in the chicken coop

I'm trying to visualize what you need to cut a hole in...the plastic? The only way I can see that you'd need to do that is if you were planning to keep the lid on the tote, and that's a bad idea all the way around.

Well ya I want to keep the lid on it so it holds the heat more but there will be vents and air holes though and yes I want to cut the hole in the lids plastic for the heat lamp

O and I love ur heat cave thing u made for ur chicks

Thanks. The Mama Heating Pad cave works very well, and it works because the chicks have a place to get cold. Chicks need some chilling, although that probably runs contrary to anything you've heard and what most people believe.

I'm afraid that if you follow through with your plans to cover your brooder with the plastic lid, you are going to end up with a bucket of fried chicken. Chicks die just as quickly from overheating as from anything else. That doesn't even take into account how hot their food and water will get. It might not matter, though, because the heated plastic from the lamp running through it will probably start a fire long before the chicks overheat, if the off-gassing from the heated plastic being in such a totally confined area doesn't make them sick first..

I seldom tell people what they have to do. I usually just tell them what I do, why I do it, and why it works (or didn't work) and then let them make up their own minds about what to do. In this case, I'm going to come right out and tell you, Do NOT cut a hole in the plastic lid, put the lid on the tote, and then run a heat lamp in there. It is disaster on so many levels I can't even count them all.

Ok well what if I hang there light above in the raptors and have it about a roost above the plastic tote so it don't get so hot