BROODER thread! Post pics of your brooders!

[CodyChristine]

Lori (loripinfl), LOVE your brooder! It is adorable!!!!!

 

[chikenlady]

Thanks codychristine,

We just got it last weekend. The man that builds them actually sells them on Mypetchicken.com. I bought one of his prototypes at a much reducted rate. It's perfect for a large brooder or for a few chickens in the backyard.

Take care,

Lori

 

[WillsMama93]

Here's my current brooder.. Started with a 35 gal rubbermaid container, and used PVC pipe to build it "taller" so they have room to roost. The PVC is enclosed in hardware cloth, held on with zip ties. The end of the "cage" part just lifts up like a trap door so we can reach inside. Nothing too fancy, but they seen to like it.

That's our mystery roo, Bambi, on the roost

The Gang... (left to right) Coconut, Pinoccio, Bambi, Bob, and Lola

 

[plfreitag]

Quote:
Put the feeder up on a piece of 2 by 4 or something else to keep it at chest height for the birds. If you do that they can't get all the litter in it. It's in the nature of the little buggers to scratch and throw litter in the food, in the water, wherever they can.

Trisha in MO

 

[plfreitag]

Our first brooder this year was a shipping crate. Hubby and a bunch of his friends go "dumpster diving" at work and take home re-useable pieces of sheet metal, wood, rebar and what have you. We have two of the crates; one holds 32-gallon garbage cans for the feed and a couple cat litter buckets for DE and scratch grains. We put the other one to use until the 36 chicks started getting cramped, about the end of the second week.

Then they moved to a section of the coop that is 4 by 6 feet and juts out from one end of the coop {made from an unused corner of the carport}. It is half the width of the coop. The other half is outside and is part of the covered outer "lounge" area, as hubby calls it. There's a sliding door from that part to the outside, and a sliding door from the other big part of the coop to the real outside, and a sliding door between the two outside parts. In a couple weeks when the babies are feathered out we can keep the middle door closed and the babies can be under cover but outside, and the older birds can have the bigger outside area. We're putting a tarp or something over part of it so they'll have shade.

Last year's birds in the temp brooder

Once they're integrated all we have to do is move around some wire temporary barriers, put the perches all back, and they can hang out together in the whole big coop.

Last year's birds sleeping in the temporary brooder area

Trisha in MO

 

[tigger65]

 

[meandwi]

I'm new to the site and with raising chickens. We have a very nice broder with 10 very cute 2 week old chicks. My wife just told me to turn the light off until the morning. Something about 12 hours on and 12 hours off, and egg producing in the future? We live in South Florida, and the temp in the barn will be dropping to 80 degrees F. Should I leave the light on 24/7? and for how long.

thank you,
meandwi

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

Quote:
Your chicks are soo cute. Are they turkens?

 

[plfreitag]

Quote:
Thanks!

We have
15 Turkens
10 Ameraucanas
5 White Wyandottes
5 Cuckoo Marans
1 mystery chick

They're all supposed to be pullets. I'm not QUITE sure about that.

Trisha in MO

 

[legacyln]

Quote:
Lights 12 hours on /12 hours off is applicable when they are 4 or 5 months old and starting to lay. When they are chicks, the one and only purpose of the lightbulb/heat lamp bulb is to keep them warm and it needs to be on 24/7. The guidance for chicks says to start at 95 degrees F when they're one day old, then decrease by 5 degrees every week till you get to "room temp". You move the light further away, thereby decreasing the temp, as they get older. When they are fully feathered at 6 weeks you can turn off the heat lamp and they can regulate their own temp. In your case, once you get to the ambient temp during the day you could actually turn it off during the day, but if the temp drops after sundown I'd turn it back on at night.