Big chicks? Small brooder?

[wordgirl]

Okay, we have very beautiful brooder, BUT...I'm guessing it's going to get a little, well, little in not too long. And my Dad has a lot of stuff he's doing in the next couple weeks and won't be able to get to building the coop until June. So...our brooder is 40X44X16(or it might 17?) and we have 20 two-week-old chicks in it. It's great right now, but when will they start to get too cramped? And when it does get cramped, what do we do with them? For a fleeting moment I thought it might work to just put them in our wellhouse's lean-to, with a something around the bottom to keep out the drafts...but I quickly realized our flock population would probably drop to zero in about 3.398 nights with all the wildlife around. So...if we just raise the sides of the brooder, will they be okay if we start to let them out in the day? Or will they get very, very agitated and start wishing they each had their own rooms?

Probably Mr. Incredible already wishes this. Sorry, boy.

 

[Cats Critters]

You could try a kiddy pool, plastic bins, or cardboard boxes for a brooder for the time being.

 

[skeeter9]

If you don't want to spend any money, you could get a huge refrigerator box from an appliance store, lay it on it's side, and cut one of the sides completely off for a top. It works pretty well and they will have enough room until your coop is built.