about brooders

[Kyle E]

I need a brooder for spring, should I buy a brooder or make one out of wood?

 

[bargain]

wooden brooders work fine for us, please be sure to give them lots of room to get away from the heat!!! Also be very careful regarding placement of heat lamp - for fire safety. There are some that use the plastic tote type of brooders, I worry abit with those regarding splay legs possibility but it seems to work for folks! Maybe someone will explain how they set those up!

If you can find a good sale on a GQF brooder they are wonderful but full price very expensive!!!! Hope I've helped some! Happy new Years!

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[URL]https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=436662] Pickup only - Pure Coronation Sussex Rooster at the Point of Crowing![/url]

 

[midget_farms]

YOu can use a cardboard box if you like - the chicks wont care.

The mistake I made was I didn't realize how much space I would need just a couple weeks after they were born. They grow so fast that they quickly crowd each other.

I ended up taking a bunch of old storm windows & making a huge area in the garage as they got older. I will do that trick again. It worked well.

 

[Dipsy Doodle Doo]

Hi! Here's a thread with hundreds of brooders, from basic to quite elaborate: Brooder thread! Post pics of your brooders!
Maybe you can find some ideas there.
Good luck!

Lisa

 

[WhySayWhat]

I absolutely love that brooder thread. I have been pouring over all 139(!) pages of it while I piece together a brooder for chicks I plan on geting mid-March (when the feed store gets them in). I'm planning on using a 45-gallon plastic tote (off brand from Wal-Mart, but similar to the big Rubbermaid ones). I particularly like the one I got because it has wheels on it and I'll be able to take them out into the yard brooder and all when they get big enough to start playing outside. I'm still debating lid options, whether to make one completely out of hardware cloth or cut half of the original lid off and cover that half with the hardware cloth, but over all it'll make clean up for 3 chickies easier on me.

As for the splayed leg concern, I'm going to use paper towels on the bottom, followed by litter (pine shavings) after the reccommended 3-7 days (it varies by who you ask, lol).

Like everyone else says...look at that thread and make a frankenbrooder!

There aren't really any set-in-stone directions to follow, but from what I gather it's pretty much a "do what suits you & the number of chicks you're gonna have" type situation. For me and my planned #, the single tote will work great.

 

[Kyle E]

thank you for everyone who replied. I think im gonna try making one 2 ft by 4 ft with wood and a glass window on top.

 

[Petej]

I created a video on homemade brooders.

Should help you in your decision making....

I have more things that may help that didn't make it in the video. Such things happen when your running out of tape!

 

[Kyle E]

thanks for posting the video, the chicks were cute

 

[Judy]

Quote:
I would use window screen or bird netting, something that is open air. As the first post indicated, it is very easy to cook them in a small brooder. How many chicks, for how long?

 

[Petej]

Quote:
Thank you.

I'm glad it helped. The Monkey Wards tub was my FIL's brooder idea. It works awesome! Even with the nrealy two dozen chicks in it, there is still plenty of room inside for them too run.

I'm am going to attempt to convince a mod to make the original thread a "Sticky". :cool