50 Gallon Tote Brooder

[holiday hawk]

Hello! So I recently began my adventures with backyard chickens, a friend of mine who was downsizing his flock sold me three hens. My coop and run are big enough for a few more, but after looking for a couple of weeks, it has been tricky trying to find someone just selling two or three chickens, so I decided to buy some chicks and split them with a friend, I am only going to take two or three of them and he will take the rest to complete a minimum order size. I am looking at DIY brooder projects and found this: https://littleredfarmstead.com/easy-diy-chicken-brooder-box/. As they would get bigger, I was thinking of attaching a second tote in this style: https://tinyurl.com/chickenduplex. I would most likely be using this tote (unless I find something bigger when I go to the store): https://tinyurl.com/walmartote. So my question, would two of these totes be big enough for the chicks to live in until they are old enough to join my adult girls in the coop?

 

[DobieLover]

Welcome to BYC!

I'm going to rain on your parade and write that a tote brooder is not a good choice.
It's small and will trap too much heat.
The food and water will take up a lot of room in it.
They cannot see out of it.
It is on the ground and every time you come to do anything with them you are going to scare the bejeezus out of them coming in from over their heads like an aerial predator.
You'd be better off getting the largest cardboard box you can find, setting it up on a large table, cut lots of "windows" in it and secure screening over the windows for ventilation and so they can see you coming at them from straight on instead of overhead. I would also ditch the heat lamp and use a momma heating pad or a brooder plate.

You never stated how many chicks you plan to brood in there. Chicks need about 1 sq ft per bird until they are around 3 weeks old then they should have 2 sq ft. This does not include real estate taken up with feeders/waterers.

How large is your current coop? Adult LF chickens need 3.5-4 sq ft per bird in the coop. This does not include the nest boxes if they take up real estate.

 

[mossyoakpro]

I'm using this one for my first batch of fluffers....it seems to be working very good but I am so ready for them to go out to their own house and get outta mine!! LOL

https://www.mypetchicken.com/products/my-pet-chicken-hen-pen-pop-up-brooder

 

[holiday hawk]

Welcome to BYC!

I'm going to rain on your parade and write that a tote brooder is not a good choice.
It's small and will trap too much heat.
The food and water will take up a lot of room in it.
They cannot see out of it.
It is on the ground and every time you come to do anything with them you are going to scare the bejeezus out of them coming in from over their heads like an aerial predator.
You'd be better off getting the largest cardboard box you can find, setting it up on a large table, cut lots of "windows" in it and secure screening over the windows for ventilation and so they can see you coming at them from straight on instead of overhead. I would also ditch the heat lamp and use a momma heating pad or a brooder plate.

You never stated how many chicks you plan to brood in there. Chicks need about 1 sq ft per bird until they are around 3 weeks old then they should have 2 sq ft. This does not include real estate taken up with feeders/waterers.

How large is your current coop? Adult LF chickens need 3.5-4 sq ft per bird in the coop. This does not include the nest boxes if they take up real estate.

Thank you for this information! Sorry for the late reply, this week has been hectic! I mentioned a couple of times in my post I was that I was looking at getting 2-3 more chickens, but I must have worded in a non-clear way. Currently, my adults are in a coop that has about ~12 sq ft minus nest boxes, but they will be moving into a coop that is 42 (minus a little for nest boxes) sq ft soon. Their run is 144 sq ft. The current coop has it's own enclosed run that cannot be accessed from the run proper if the door is closed; I plan to keep the chicks in that for several weeks once they are old enough to be moved outside so that the current adults and the them can see each other through the fencing but cannot interact.