Brooder set up pictures please

[CochinBrahmaLover]

aw cute chickies and cool brooder

 

[AmyLM]

Amy that brooder rocks! I'd love to have one like that for our chickies, but with 2 dogs and 2 cats I'd never be able to keep them safe.

Seth, I made our brooder out of a plastic tote, cut the top out and covered it with chicken wire, and put it in the master bath tub. I keep the bedroom door shut to keep all the predators out, but if they do get in, the babies are still safe. Just the other day one of my J.R's got in there, and was trying to chew the top!

Needless to say she got in big trouble, but all the chickies are just fine.

LOL you should see it now. Hubby got creative tonight making places for them to roost I will take new pics.

I also have a dog that I have to worry ALOT about. Hes a former Indian Street Dog. yes... all the way from New Delhi (we live in Texas). He has *VERY* strong predatory instincts so we have to be very very careful. Rex isn't allowed in the room with them at all. I just cant trust him. He caught two baby bunnies last week. He didn't kill them (amazingly) but he did have them in his mouth 'playing' with them. Thankfully after a day in a dark cardboard box with a soft towel and a heat lamp they ended up being ok and we released them under our tree in the field (there are a bunch of bunny holes under it). Hopefully nothing got them after we released them but it just proved how strong his instincts really are...

 

[AmyLM]

Ohh I had a question about your brooder.... the rubbermaid style container with the gap cut out of the top...

How do you make sure that they get enough air flow? I worry about the heat getting trapped in there and them over heating. Has that been a problem?

 

[dragonmorgan]

We found an old plastic chick crate (not sure what its really called but DH said it was used to ship chicks

) Anyway we took the plastic door off the top and replaced it with an old grill grate. We still gotta get a red bulb for the heat lamp but it seems to be pretty warm for them. Tonight Im goin to find some tape and tape cardboard around the sides so the cat cant snatch any while we are asleep and a couple of our chicks are small enough to squeeze out (although I doubt they will with 4 dogs and a cat starin at the through the slats lol). Please ignore the nest of wires around it. We had to rearrange some stuff to be able to plug in the light and I was too lazy to neatly put everything back up before I whipped out my camera lol.

 

[FuzzyButtsFarm]

These are my indoor brooders. The chicks stay in them till 2 wks. of age.


There are tunnels connecting the tubs. 4 x 12 outdoor stall brooder

 

[AmyLM]

We found an old plastic chick crate (not sure what its really called but DH said it was used to ship chicks

) Anyway we took the plastic door off the top and replaced it with an old grill grate. We still gotta get a red bulb for the heat lamp but it seems to be pretty warm for them. Tonight I'm going to find some tape and tape cardboard around the sides so the cat cant snatch any while we are asleep and a couple of our chicks are small enough to squeeze out (although I doubt they will with 4 dogs and a cat staring at the through the slats lol). Please ignore the nest of wires around it. We had to rearrange some stuff to be able to plug in the light and I was too lazy to neatly put everything back up before I whipped out my camera lol.

oooh that's a chicken crate. That's not a bad idea actually. It would be relatively easy to attach some simple sticks to so that the chicks can learn how to roost on them too

 

[AmyLM]

These are my indoor brooders. The chicks stay in them till 2 wks. of age.


There are tunnels connecting the tubs. 4 x 12 outdoor stall brooder

you move them to the barn at 2 weeks of age? How much does the drafts effect them? I was going to move mine out (3 weeks old) but I worry about the cool nights.

 

[FuzzyButtsFarm]

It's the way the barn is built. The air flow is above the stalls. The solid ends of the barn are north and south which takes the force of any wind. The east side is protected by a ridge and we very rarely have winds out of the west. Surprisingly there is very little draft inside the stalls.

 

[featheredroots]

This is the second year we've used this brooder, and have had good luck with it so far. They get enough air from the open top, and the brooder lamp hangs from a expandable rod above the tub. We wrapped a wire coat hanger securely around the rod, and then hooked the other end through the clamp of the brooder lamp. We've never had the lamp fall, and the wire makes it easy to adjust the distance of the lamp from the brooder. It's really basic, but seems to work well.

 

[2seth2]

cool brooders keep the pictures coming

cool a indian street dog that is so awesome.