3 foot wide brooder

[Jabebee13]

By 1.5 foot wide. How many chicken babies can fit comfortably as they grow

 

[Sahraschweiss]

The rule of thumb for the size of your baby chick brooder states that up to two weeks old chick you need to provide at least ½ square foot per baby chick; up to four weeks old chicks, 1 square foot per chick will be enough and up to eight weeks old chicks you should provide 1 ½ square feet for each chick. Beyond eight weeks, the square feet for the chicken should be increased according to the recommendations laid down for adult chicken coop sizes.

How many you can have depends on how long they will be in the brooder.

 

[Jabebee13]

Very helpful, thanks.

 

[Ridgerunner]

How many you can have depends on how long they will be in the brooder.

Extremely good point and often overlooked. If you follow those numbers you should be safe. I always try to suggest more space is better than less space.

You should go by what you see. I find that a brood of mostly boys takes more room than a brood of mostly girls. The type of chicks can affect it, Cornish X raised for meat will take more room than bantams.

Where will you brood, inside a climate controlled area or outside where you can get pretty wild temperature swings? To me the ideal brooder has one spot that stays warm enough in the coldest temperatures and also has a spot cool enough in the warmest temperatures. If your brooder is inside a climate controlled area that can be pretty easy to do. My 3' x 6' brooder is built into the coop, I've seen it go from below freezing to over 70* Fahrenheit in 36 hours. Depending on your heat source a larger brooder might help manage those temperature swings.

There will always be exceptions to any rule of thumb, sometimes they are overkill and sometimes they get tight. But those look good to me.

 

[Jabebee13]

Heat lamp.

 

[Sahraschweiss]

Extremely good point and often overlooked. If you follow those numbers you should be safe. I always try to suggest more space is better than less space.

You should go by what you see. I find that a brood of mostly boys takes more room than a brood of mostly girls. The type of chicks can affect it, Cornish X raised for meat will take more room than bantams.

Where will you brood, inside a climate controlled area or outside where you can get pretty wild temperature swings? To me the ideal brooder has one spot that stays warm enough in the coldest temperatures and also has a spot cool enough in the warmest temperatures. If your brooder is inside a climate controlled area that can be pretty easy to do. My 3' x 6' brooder is built into the coop, I've seen it go from below freezing to over 70* Fahrenheit in 36 hours. Depending on your heat source a larger brooder might help manage those temperature swings.

There will always be exceptions to any rule of thumb, sometimes they are overkill and sometimes they get tight. But those look good to me.

Well said @Ridgerunner.

My May batch of 8 chicks were in an 2x6 oval stock tank in my basement. I made lamp rack to hang heat lamps that I could adjust closeness to control hot spots. For the first couple of weeks I had part of the tank blocked of with a screen. After two weeks, the had the entire space. By 5 weeks they had enough feathers to go out to the baby coop and run that I had sectioned off within the big coop and run. There they had a 9 square feet of coop with roost boards and 72 square feet of run. Plenty of space to explore and hide. While the stock tank brooder had 12 square feet of space for 8 five weeks old chicks, it was getting cramped and boring... pecking was becoming a problem. Once they got to the bigger space the pecking stop as they were happier birds.

 

[Jabebee13]

Quote "Once they got to the bigger space the pecking stop as they were happier birds." -Happy to hear it.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Heat lamp.

Tough part with a heat lamp in such a small brooder is it's difficult to provide a cool area too. Consider using lower wattage bulbs.

 

[Jabebee13]

Thanks so much.