kcal
Chirping
I have 32 chicks ordered and set to arrive the middle of March. This is the most chicks I’ve raised at one time before, the most up until now was 18. I’m looking for ideas for a new brooder to accommodate more chicks, but also have a couple other issues I’m trying to work through. In the past, I used a large 4x8 box my husband put together with 2x4’s and hardware cloth that was then kept in my garage. I’d section off half of it when they were babies so they couldn’t wander too far from the heat and then I’d open the rest up as they got older.
Biggest problem with this setup was the dust - my entire garage and my vehicle had a constant layer of dust. My husband has said he refuses to keep the brooder in the garage this year unless I can come up with a way to at least reduce the dust. Our coop is a walk-in shed we converted into a coop. He wants to build something in the coop that can then be slowly opened up when I begin integrating the chicks with the rest of the flock. I have two concerns with this: 1. Safety - I feel there’s higher potential for a fire when my full grown chickens will undoubtedly be exploring all around the brooder. Not to mention having a heat source will raise the heat to some degree for my older chickens too. 2. The coop is obviously quite a bit farther away from the house, which will make it harder to pop out and check on them as often since I have a young toddler.
Basically what I’m looking for is this:
Brooder design that I can keep in the garage without having everything covered in 1/4” of dust all the time OR ideas that will make my husband’s idea of the brooder in the coop more feasible and safe.
Biggest problem with this setup was the dust - my entire garage and my vehicle had a constant layer of dust. My husband has said he refuses to keep the brooder in the garage this year unless I can come up with a way to at least reduce the dust. Our coop is a walk-in shed we converted into a coop. He wants to build something in the coop that can then be slowly opened up when I begin integrating the chicks with the rest of the flock. I have two concerns with this: 1. Safety - I feel there’s higher potential for a fire when my full grown chickens will undoubtedly be exploring all around the brooder. Not to mention having a heat source will raise the heat to some degree for my older chickens too. 2. The coop is obviously quite a bit farther away from the house, which will make it harder to pop out and check on them as often since I have a young toddler.
Basically what I’m looking for is this:
Brooder design that I can keep in the garage without having everything covered in 1/4” of dust all the time OR ideas that will make my husband’s idea of the brooder in the coop more feasible and safe.