BROODER thread! Post pics of your brooders!

[TrishinWTN]

My eleven year old son has started a business, Deluxe Clucks and he is blogging about his experiences. BackYard Chickens was mentioned in the post again... this time about looking at brooder boxes. If there is anything that Gage is not considering for his new brooder box, please leave a comment and let us know. Thank you! http://liveandlearnfarm.com/new-huge-brooder-box/

 

[DixieChicken78]

Everyone's brooders are so nice! We started off with a huge plastic bin. Now that they are bigger we have them in a makeshift corral on our screened in back porch with a heat light of course. We live in south Alabama so hopefully they can go in their coop soon!

 

[Sharon Bee]

Hello everyone!

I had several ideas about what to do for a brooder, then read someone's post about how they might use a dog crate ..... *ding!*..... we had a huge one in our garage I was about to list on craigslist!  (FYI, it is 27" x 40" and we have 6 chicks)   This was perfect for us, to protect the babies from our house dog and the two kids.  I thought it might be useful for others to see how some of us have made a brooder and get some ideas, so I will start it out!



Here it is from the outside..... it is in our living room with the light mounted on the outside.  As they have needed less heat I have slowly turned it to the left, lowering the temp each week.

Here is the inside.  Thermometer is on the left (not in photo though!).  Food and water are on a 4x4 post scrap to get it up a bit so they dont poop in it, or get shavings in it.  We still wash out the water every day.  It is also in the back so it stays cooler.   I screwed in screws to hang the oak branch in there and they love it.  The chick flapping is one of the two who are competing for the Queen of the Pecking Order.  They fight for who is on the roost, and she is clearly telling the other one to get off!  We use the deep litter method, and so need the bit of cardboard in the front to prevent shavings from coming out the front!  We also stir it up everyday.

And here is our huge Lab protecting the babies.........actually, he is scared of them and backs away when we get them close to him, but he wants to look at them!

Can't wait to see everyone else's ideas!

 

[hillfloweranch]

Brooder /coop made today proud of myself because I'm not pro at this but it came out great 4ft by 2ft with removable floor panels for cleaning and back panels for anything else...lol

 

[Liberty Nursery]

I use straw bales as the walls of my brooders, you can do this on a carport inside an existing coop or make your own temp roof. I do mine over my worm composts with a temp roof. Early scratchers get early rewards this way.

 

[Sharon Bee]

The bales sound like a good idea once I move them into our carriage house. I was trying to figure out how to enclose only one quarter of the building for them without going into a major construction job of building walls.

 

[Liberty Nursery]

I did have one problem with the straw bales, I lost a red sex link and thought a snake made its way through the a seem but when I took the brooder down I found the chick was dead between 2 bales, Now I know what to do when one goes missing. I am deaf so I can not hear any birds chirping for their lives so I tend to miss things. That's assuming it chirped for help when it was stuck.

 

[PdxChickieMom]

I will start by admitting that I'm not handy. Not at all. My total skill level is making a straight-ish cut with a skill saw. Even then, I had fears about losing fingers. I decided that wouldn't stop me from getting a big ol' (and cheap) brooder.

So I went to the local ReStore (reclaimed building materials store) and after much poking around, decided that what fit my skill level was snap together laminate flooring. Why? It was all pre-cut to 6ft lengths, snapped together, and was super easy to wipe down and clean. For 25cents a 6ft by 16inch board, I could put together a 6ft x 3ft brooder for a few bucks. I grabbed a few small 2x4s to brace the walls, and screwed everything together. So not perfect, but fit what I needed.


I decided (after lurking in the forums for a few months) to fill her up with sand. I covered half of it with paper towels to monitor the new girls poo for a bit, and to teach them not to eat the sand. A few little bits of wood and a perch 1/2 on the ground were put in.



It's been four days now, and the little girls love the sand. They scratch all around in it, and it's super easy to clean with a reptile scooper. I've scooped it out twice, lost virtually no sand, it took a full 2 minutes, and we have zero smell.

It's not as beautiful as what my husband would have made, but for a few bucks I'm pretty happy! And my little girls are spoiled rotten =D

 

[Sharon Bee]

Looks great!! Good idea.

 

[MoonShadows]

I made our brooder from a wood box I found in the garbage outside a local sign company. I had to replace one side because it was broken. Then, I just extended the height for when they get a little older and put hardware cloth around the sides and the top I made for it. The brooder is 3' x 4'.