Brooder modification pictures

[PetraStonegirl]

In the February HAL I had been asked to share the indoor fabric brooder modifications when they were done, and I figured folks on this side of hatching might be interested, so… Surprise! Unasked for pictures!

We still have some bitter temps, so are having to brood inside, something we don’t ordinarily do. Even the garage is too cold for the heater plate to do the job the first few weeks. I wanted to cut down on dust, so wanted something with a screened in top. I ordered a pop up tent style brooder from Incubator Warehouse, however once it arrived, it wasn’t very suitable. The advert said vinyl, but it was super lightweight nylon instead. Plus, the more I looked at the design, I realized I was always going to be accessing the birds from above. So, I got to work. It now has 3 screened walls, including one that drops down, and a vinyl floor insert. We also put in a center divider for the first week when they don’t needs as much room.

 

[Sally PB]

Thanks for sharing!

 

[khind]

So you cut 3 windows and screened them? Wow - great work!
The only time (so far) I've raised chicks myself in the house, I used a puppy playpen that already had a few windows as well. I still had to do a lot from the top, but I know it was much easier on them to be able to see regular movement on the sides too. It saved them from going into a constant freak-out mode, and they were much more chilled.

 

[PetraStonegirl]

Update-

We ended up brooding our 6 chicks for a full 8 weeks inside. Our temps stayed too cold to safely move them, even though our coop has a heating plate mounted on the ceiling over the roost we could have turned on. (We just have it there on a thermostat to cycle on when temps drop below -10F in order to protect combs.)

Because we were inside, we did a full bedding change every 48 hours. For the first 12 hours it was just fresh bedding scent, and for the last 12 hours it started to smell like chicken poop. But, as long as the bedding was dry and about 3” deep, it’s was not bad. We put the brooder tent up on a card table, and the birds were calm and content for the duration, even when my daughter had friends over and they were being loud and rambunctious. Totally different than previous brooding experiences there.

On nice days we moved them out to the chicken tractor starting at about 4 weeks, and back in at night, but most of the time they were in the brooder tent. To clean we laid a towel down and put up foldable brooder wall and moved the birds and their roost over to hang out until we were done, and then moved them back.

In the end, I would do this again. Having the birds elevated, and viewing and accessing them from their own eye level really helped them be calm and more easy to handle. The best part though was that after 8 full weeks inside, there was only a very light coat of chicken dust to clean up. Not too much more than normal household dust.