BROODER thread! Post pics of your brooders!

[aart]

I finished our new brooder boxes and want to share with you all, It's in a lofted area in our barn 10x24. I incorporated a germination area for our garden in the same room. The interior walls are 2x6 with r19 insulation covered with osb. The floor outside the boxes is a honey maple laminate for easy clean up that was leftover from another project. 3 of the boxes are 2'x2'x8' and the one at the back is 2'x2'x10'. At the end of the 3 i have slide out dividers that let all the boxes connect to each other. I had fun building this project and the wife is very happy to have a nice brooding area.

Welcome to BYC @CedarSpringFarm !!

That is one sweet set up!
New Life Central!
How many chicks do y'all raise?
Love the connect/separate aspect of the brooder 'bank'.

Agrees you might look at heating pad concept for chick warmth.....
....will save you on electrical costs, acclimate chicks to dark/light cycles, and eliminate that 250W x 6 risk of fire.
Here's another version https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/pseudo-brooder-heater-plate

 

[Seatrout00]

Question - I see most folk use a lighted heater - I was wondering if a heating pad would be suitable - I live in Florida and our house stays around 75 degrees year round - using a heating pad would be far easier but I was wondering if the lighted heater was a duel purpose.

Facts - I do not yet have chicks or even a coop - I am just in the learning phase - we hope to have chicks by Easter 2016.

 

[jeffkerle65]

Yes. The best I found is the titan brooder hen. You can get them for $75.00 & they only use 10 watts to run. You can run 10 of these & use as much energy as 1 heat lamp. They have a built in thermostat & run at 34 to 36 degrees Celsius. I have 2 running at the moment. I think they are good value.

 

[aart]

Question - I see most folk use a lighted heater - I was wondering if a heating pad would be suitable - I live in Florida and our house stays around 75 degrees year round - using a heating pad would be far easier but I was wondering if the lighted heater was a duel purpose.

Facts - I do not yet have chicks or even a coop - I am just in the learning phase - we hope to have chicks by Easter 2016.

Absolutely!

Many have used pet pads in the past and there's something called the 'sweeter heater' that's been around for years.
Brinsea and now Premeire1 have brooder plates that have been around for awhile.

Then the latest (well, for the last year or so on BYC) 'rage' is a DIY heating pad on a wire rack for the chicks to get under. Here's mine https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/pseudo-brooder-heater-plate

Then Blooie has a massive chat thread all about what they call the Mama Heating Pad.

 

[Seatrout00]

Thank you so much aart! That will make brooding the chicks we eventually get far easier - as I was going to put them in a large dog crate in the living room - protects them from all sides from the cats - we have two cats and I can't expect them to leave, delicious little baby chicks alone. I may get another heating pad to give them another area to roost - hang about - as heating pads are fairly inexpensive - which would leave me more coin for my coop!

Woo Hoo!

 

[AlHawk]

I am going to follow Blooie's advice and brood outside with my new fangled dog pen/brooder but I don't think we need a heating pad til Jan/Feb when we get into the 30's/40's. We're still in the 70's at night and think just the cage with some hay/straw and a blankey cover is all we need in good old Sunshine state.

My dog/chick house
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1048697/my-first-coop-build/10

 

[Seatrout00]

I read the baby chicks need to be kept around 95 degrees for around their first week - and I won't be able to do that without some sort of heat source, but I don't even have any chicks yet, nor a coop, so I'm just gathering information. At the present time, I am hoping to acquire 4 hen chicks - two RIRs and two Barred Rocks after Christmas, and after we've secured a decent coop.

 

[aart]

I read the baby chicks need to be kept around 95 degrees for around their first week - and I won't be able to do that without some sort of heat source, but I don't even have any chicks yet, nor a coop, so I'm just gathering information. At the present time, I am hoping to acquire 4 hen chicks - two RIRs and two Barred Rocks after Christmas, and after we've secured a decent coop.

Commonly cited but not really accurate.

Here's my notes on chick heat, hope something in there might help:
They need to be pretty warm(~85-90F on the brooder floor right under the lamp and 10-20 degrees cooler at the other end of brooder) for the first day or two, especially if they have been shipped, until they get to eating, drinking and moving around well. But after that it's best to keep them as cool as possible for optimal feather growth and quicker integration to outside temps. A lot of chick illnesses are attributed to too warm of a brooder. I do think it's a good idea to use a thermometer on the floor of the brooder to check the temps, especially when new at brooding, later i still use it but more out of curiosity than need.

The best indicator of heat levels is to watch their behavior:
If they are huddled/piled up right under the lamp and cheeping very loudly, they are too cold.
If they are spread out on the absolute edges of the brooder as far from the lamp as possible, panting and/or cheeping very loudly, they are too hot.
If they sleep around the edge of the lamp calmly just next to each other and spend time running all around the brooder they are juuuust right!

The lamp is best at one end of the brooder with food/water at the other cooler end of the brooder, so they can get away from the heat or be under it as needed. Wattage of 'heat' bulb depends on size of brooder and ambient temperature of room brooder is in. Regular incandescent bulbs can be used, you might not need a 'heat bulb'. You can get red colored incandescent bulbs at a reptile supply source. A dimmer extension cord is an excellent way to adjust the output of the bulb to change the heat without changing the height of the lamp.


Or you could go with a heat plate, commercially made or DIY: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/pseudo-brooder-heater-plate

 

[Seatrout00]

You are a wealth of knowledge, thank you so much! Outside temps here are very mild - so I don't think it will be that drastic for them going from an air conditioned house to their coop in mid-80 degree weather in March or so ... but thank you so much for this - I may have ended up keeping them too hot without your advice.

 

[freenerik]

Because I'm a chicken addict I was in need of some new chicks but wanted to order them before the price was raised in January, so I ordered 25 assorted chicks on November 4th and told my husband they were being shipped the 7th of December so I would need an indoor brooder. Well my husband is a bit of a procrastinator so by the 1st I was getting a bit nervous but he kept telling me he would get it done. The 5th came along and I started looking for a very large cardboard box and started maybe getting a bit short tempered with him. Well December 6th I came home from shopping to him starting on a huge beautiful brooder that the chicks can stay in till they are nice and big and ready to go outside with the big chickens.
And today I came home from dropping my son off to school and the chicks had arrived and were happy as could be in their new brooder.

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