Brooder heater

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My Patronus is a Chicken
11 Years
Apr 22, 2008
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Virginia
I know other people use box heaters in their brooders, but we never had a large enough brooder for the size box we felt we would want in there. We have some new big brooders built now and tried a box heater in one. It is fantastic! That is all we will be using for our brooders from now on. Out of a batch of 117 chicks, we have only lost two so far in the brooder, and those two were showing weakness right out of the hatchery box. Ours doesn't have legs, we have it suspended in the brooder so that we can raise and lower it as the weather and age of the chicks changes. Definitely the best way to brood we have found so far and even a money saver. We used to need four or five lamps in our large brooders at 250 watts each. The box lets us get away with only two 250 watt lamps.

 
I'll try to get a picture of the inside tomorrow. It is basically just a box with two lights (we were going to do three but found it didn't need three), positioned at the top of the box. We lined it with foil initially to protect the wood and to reflect the heat a little more, but the chicks pecked it off the sides of the box so we won't be doing that again.
 
I am trying one this year as well. Mine is 2'Hx4'Wx4'L..but has legs. I like the idea of suspending it but couldn't figure out what to hang it from where I'm using it. To modulate the heat I mounted two light switches and can just turn off one or both.

The 4x4 design gives room for 300 chicks. I have four lamps mounted in the box pointing down. Looking from the side it kinda looks like this one:
http://matronofhusbandry.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/100_9027.jpg

I found a plan on frugal squirrels but made it 2' tall instead of 1' tall so I could also use it for a table for starting my bedding plants.
 
Well, that's the plan. I'm brooding in the greenhouse and was looking for ways to really use the space. We'll see how it turns out.

Same blog as before. Here's where I got the idea.

http://matronofhusbandry.wordpress.com/2010/10/11/making-the-most-of-it-stacking-on-our-farm/

It may take some tweaking. I'll have to watch the surface temperature of the brooder box. We'll see what happens.

I made a circle of straw bales around the brooder so they have a defined area to explore. I also put down a couple of inches of horse manure and sawdust.
 
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This is what the inside of the box is:




Very simple. Just a box with two lights mounted in the top. The foil is there to reflect heat and protect the wood. Here is a close-up of the light connection on the top of the box:

 
Thank you for the details! I hadn't thought of adding foil to the interior for reflection - great idea!
I'm now looking closer at the solar oven my son made in Cub Scouts.....hmmm, parts anyone?!
 

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