Homemade Chicken Brooder Designs & Pictures

how can i post my brooder pic?

Wow, so many great ideas!

We didn't have a garage or any good area to raise chicks at my parents house so we just used the bath tub! It had a small hole in it, so no one could use it anyways The tub had sliding doors too so didn't have to worry about the chicks hoping out. Oh and we got extra smart one year and lined the bottom of it with this plastic that's sticky on one side and supposed to be used on floors... and THEN we put down the bedding. Made clean up easier after it was time to move 'em outside.

I have a home made brooder for sale with feeders, waterers & heat lamp. In Australia, NSW, Wollongong. I dont know where to post a pic of it......Will sell it for $30.

This was very helpful in helping us decide on a brooder for our new chicks we got last Friday! I turned an old wooden crate box into a brooder for 6 chicks, and a neighbor gave us a coop/brooder outdoor pen for when they get older! I have pics in my albums here.

how can I post my rooder pic?

I think I accidentally posted it on the coops page. Anyone know how I can get my pics in this thread? I got a link:
http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/danibs-brooder

Here is our cheap project with instructions made with a Walmart 105 quart storage bin!
http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Build-a-Chick-Brooder-and-Have-Happy-Chicks

I want to post my brooder

Here's a video of my brooder:

Not sure how to add to this gallery--would like to post my brooder. Adding as a comment but it should probably be moved...

After reading a few books and researching what makes a good brooder, I decided to go with a very large cardboard box. It was free, easy to set up and use, and could be discarded when we were done with it. Luckily I have a friend who works at Costco, so he got a watermelon box. The box is waist-high (close to 3 ft tall) and is probably 2 and a 1/2 ft wide, by 4ft long. This means the box is big enough that I don't have to mess with temperature regulation much, even while using the heat lamp. The chicks have plenty of room to stand close or far away from it, so I don't spend a lot of time fiddling with the heat lamp, which I like. The cardboard is probably 1/2 an inch thick, so chicks will not be able to peck their way through it. It didn't have a bottom, so we set the box up and taped it back together on top of a wooden pallet, then put another piece of cardboard down as the floor. First we put garbage bags over the wooden pallet to provide a little more insulation from our cold basement floor.



On top we have a borrowed 'screen.' Normally used to dry root crops like onions or sweet potatoes, it was temporarily repurposed to be the lid for our brooder.The lid is made out of 1/2 inch hardware cloth, and wood. It's fairly easy to move back a little ways to get access to the chicks or their food or waterer. We did have to put cardboard triangles on the corner to close off the gap where very feisty chicks could have gotten out.




The chicks are 2 weeks old now and I am very thankful to have such a big brooder for them. They certainly use the room, running around, flapping their wings at each other, and hopping up on top of their feeder or waterer.



The feeder and waterer are set up away from the heat of the heat lamp or ecobrooder. The basement is cold enough that we did end up needing a heat lamp at first, in addition to the ecobrooder. Now the chicks are fine with just the ecobrooder.



(Cora loves perching on it.)

I used paper towels the first few days so I could spread their food around, but have now switched over to pine shavings which are much easier.

I hadn't thought a lot about getting feeders and waterers in sizes appropriate to the number of chicks that I had, but both the waterer and the feeder could be bigger. I have to make sure I refill both twice a day, sometimes 3 times.



It's also nice having a big brooder that I can divide in half if I need to, to quarantine a sick chick. This is another reason why I have an ecobrooder...and also a heat lamp on hand. I saved the lids from a few jars to use as backup feeder and waterer.

In addition I had nutridrench on hand for pasty butt chicks that needed extra nutrition...hand sanitizer to keep near the brooder, and I ordered electrolytes from the hatchery.
Hope someone finds these pictures / or this post useful!

Would like to add my brooder to this gallery--not seeing how to do that. Advice? Help?

i have an idea put it on your avatar

My brooder isn't homemade per say but I took and old pet store display case for puppies and added a heat lamp. .. works wonderful and they don't out grow it Before they go outside

Where do we post brooder pics

I'm with all the others wondering where to post a DIY brooder picture for others to see.

How can I post my brooder pic

So many great brooders! I have an out door brooder sort of like @Barred Babies brooder, and love it. I need to submit some photos soon.

We use a small pool similar to redturtle's brooder.

I ordered a pre-owned brooder pen from amazon and was thrilled when it arrived.It is a great size and came with an attached pvc pole for hanging the heat lamp on. Now the chicks are getting bigger and learning to fly so we had to get creative. We took an old window frame and covered it with chicken wire. Two pieces of 2x2 were placed on either end to make sure they could not knock it over.