Brooder Size?

[Kessel23]

I was wondering if my brooder is big enough for around 100 chicks, I hatched 17 bantams this weekend and I have 75 chicks coming right now, 50 meat birds and 25 layers. Along with that I have a few silkie chicks that my little brother bought and I would like to keep them in here too. The brooder is a 4 x 8 but I can make it a 8 x 8 or a 8 x 12 whenever I want. I split the 4 x 8 into two 4 x 4s, one for the meat birds and one for the egg layers and bantams. I was thinking I should keep them in a smaller area until they are a week or older so they stay by the heat, the food, and the water, how long do you think I should keep the chicks in the 4 x 8?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Might be okay for a week or two. The problem with brooding large batches is there's a big concern about chicks being crushed or smothered if there's a pile up in a corner. A round brooder is recommended to prevent that. You are going to very quickly need lots of room, but I'm unsure how much as the most I've brooded is 25-30 and they out grew a 3x10 brooder by 8 weeks and went out in the shed when they started pecking because they needed more room.

 

[lazy gardener]

By 2 - 3 weeks of age, they should have 2 s.f./bird. A big issue I see is that you have bantams, LF AND MEAT birds. A lot of size difference. Those bantam and LF chicks can easily get crushed by the meaties. An other concern is coop and run space. 4 s.f./bird in coop, and 10 s.f. in run per bird are the MINIMUM recommended spacing. Got that?

 

[Kessel23]

My run is over 350 square feet, the coop is over 150 square feet not including the second story, the meat birds will be kept separate from the others the entire time and are not staying in the coop, I have 3 chicken tractors for them and they will be moved out to them asap. I have another coop that is a 15 x 15 and that one has a circular run that is over 100 square feet. Run space is of no concern to me in the summer, my birds free range and 75 acres is more than enough for any number of birds I could buy. That coop will be used for peafowl in a few months. Any roosters from the bantam batch and other batch will be culled with the meat birds.

I have an existing flock but that one needs some modifications and will have some birds culled too this year. I hatched the bantams a few days ago and they already are getting a head start on the other chicks, again, meat birds will be kept seperate the whole time, that is why I have the brooder split. And if space really becomes a huge problem I can add my barn to the equation and we will have a 100 x 50 titan sized two story chicken coop. By the end of the year I will have a flock size of a little over 30 chickens if everything goes as planned.