imacowgirl2
Songster
I am really digging the new setup we have come up with for our chick brooder(s).
Right before Christmas our Rural King had these 48” dog crates on sale for 50% off (and do again, if anyone reads this and decides they need one or three
) and I realized last week that they would make a great brooder setup.
Greater detail, for anyone who wants it, follows the pictures.
I set the crate up on a table in front of the window in our shed, to provide as much natural daylight as possible for the chicks. Our shed is not heated or insulated, but it is draft free.
With this setup, our chicks have been thriving — they nap under MHP, come out to eat and drink, and run back under MHP when they need to warm up. Temperatures outside have been in the mid-high 30’s/low 40’s during the day and mid 20’s at night, and temps in the shed are not much, if any, warmer than outside.
Setup details:
We layer the bottom of the crate with two layers of newspapers, covered with two layers of paper towels. After day 3, when they are eating well, we add bedding…this time we are trying the TSC pelletized bedding, and so far I like it (though we are only two days in lol).
The sides of the crate have sunshade zip tied to them. This keeps shavings and chicks inside, and since we have the sunshade hanging down a bit under the crate pan, it creates a very firm and tidy barrier, so no worries about chicks escaping. The sunshade is SUPER easy to work with and I’m hoping I might even get lucky enough to be able to fold the crates with the sunshade still attached.
On top of the paper towels goes a cheap cookie sheet under the waterer, also covered with paper towels and later bedding. This keeps water leaks from soaking large areas of bedding; its limited to the small area of the pan, which can be easily dumped and refilled as needed.
The mama heating pad fits perfectly on one short end of the crate. In that section we have two layers of fleece under the newspapers and paper towels, to help retain heat from the bottom.
Our mama heating pad is the following: 2 wire sides of these crates/shelves (pictures at bottom of post) zip tied together, with the heating pad laid on top. The whole thing is then covered with a pillowcase, and the open end is duct taped closed, and three supporting pieces of duct tape are wrapped as tightly as possible where the middle of the heating pad is, and where both ends are. The whole thing is then flipped over so the heating pad is on the bottom of the rack, and placed in the crate and supported by a random rock we had and four tennis balls, one at each corner.
After placing the MHP, we cover with a layer of fleece on top, to help with heat retention and also to keep the duct tape ends hidden from the chicks. The layer of fleece drops down to the ground in back, to keep drafts from coming in the back of the MHP. This fleece also makes dismantling the MHP much cleaner, as all the poop is on the fleece, and not the pillowcase and duct tape that you are trying to pull apart.
Everything is topped off with a layer of fleece around the outside of the crate on the side that faces the shed door, to prevent drafts on the chicks when we come and go.
I’m not sure how long the chicks will comfortably fit in here…we typically fully integrate with the flock by 2-3 weeks, so in about a week the whole contraption will be moved to the coop where we will start the integration process.
Right before Christmas our Rural King had these 48” dog crates on sale for 50% off (and do again, if anyone reads this and decides they need one or three
) and I realized last week that they would make a great brooder setup.Greater detail, for anyone who wants it, follows the pictures.
I set the crate up on a table in front of the window in our shed, to provide as much natural daylight as possible for the chicks. Our shed is not heated or insulated, but it is draft free.
With this setup, our chicks have been thriving — they nap under MHP, come out to eat and drink, and run back under MHP when they need to warm up. Temperatures outside have been in the mid-high 30’s/low 40’s during the day and mid 20’s at night, and temps in the shed are not much, if any, warmer than outside.
Setup details:
We layer the bottom of the crate with two layers of newspapers, covered with two layers of paper towels. After day 3, when they are eating well, we add bedding…this time we are trying the TSC pelletized bedding, and so far I like it (though we are only two days in lol).
The sides of the crate have sunshade zip tied to them. This keeps shavings and chicks inside, and since we have the sunshade hanging down a bit under the crate pan, it creates a very firm and tidy barrier, so no worries about chicks escaping. The sunshade is SUPER easy to work with and I’m hoping I might even get lucky enough to be able to fold the crates with the sunshade still attached.
On top of the paper towels goes a cheap cookie sheet under the waterer, also covered with paper towels and later bedding. This keeps water leaks from soaking large areas of bedding; its limited to the small area of the pan, which can be easily dumped and refilled as needed.
The mama heating pad fits perfectly on one short end of the crate. In that section we have two layers of fleece under the newspapers and paper towels, to help retain heat from the bottom.
Our mama heating pad is the following: 2 wire sides of these crates/shelves (pictures at bottom of post) zip tied together, with the heating pad laid on top. The whole thing is then covered with a pillowcase, and the open end is duct taped closed, and three supporting pieces of duct tape are wrapped as tightly as possible where the middle of the heating pad is, and where both ends are. The whole thing is then flipped over so the heating pad is on the bottom of the rack, and placed in the crate and supported by a random rock we had and four tennis balls, one at each corner.
After placing the MHP, we cover with a layer of fleece on top, to help with heat retention and also to keep the duct tape ends hidden from the chicks. The layer of fleece drops down to the ground in back, to keep drafts from coming in the back of the MHP. This fleece also makes dismantling the MHP much cleaner, as all the poop is on the fleece, and not the pillowcase and duct tape that you are trying to pull apart.
Everything is topped off with a layer of fleece around the outside of the crate on the side that faces the shed door, to prevent drafts on the chicks when we come and go.
I’m not sure how long the chicks will comfortably fit in here…we typically fully integrate with the flock by 2-3 weeks, so in about a week the whole contraption will be moved to the coop where we will start the integration process.
and i have a good idea of what to do. but thank you for the link to the heating pad. Did it do well being on 24/7 for weeks on end?
