BROODER thread! Post pics of your brooders!

[misserink]

Hello everyone. I'd like to share a few things that has made my life easier when brooding newly hatched chicks. The first two weeks I like to keep them close (next to my bed as a matter of fact, lol). I bought a small glass aquarium at the pet store for $9. I line it with half a puppy pad. Puppy training pads are perfect for the first few days/weeks. They aren't slippery when the chicks walk on them, they're very absorbent, and you just roll them up from one side to the other for easy clean up. Sometimes you can get lucky and find a 5 pack of puppy pads at the dollar store. That will last last two weeks depending on how many chicks you have.

Another thing I do that has made my life easier, is making a little feeding dish out of plastic dressing cups with lids. The store bought feeding containers take up so much room in my little brooder. Plus with only a few chicks the feed goes stale fast. To make the little feeding dish, you pop the lid on a dressing cup (or used mealworms cup) and cut the bottom off with a utility knife. Scoop up some starter feed and you have a small dish that can't be knocked over.

I hope these tips will be helpful to someone else.

 

[chooklover10]

Hey everyone, at the moment I am trying to find brooder heat sources that are cheap and energy efficient. I found this on youtube and was wondering if you think this would work and keep the chicks warm enough, even though there is no electricity involved?

James

 

[aart]

Hey everyone, at the moment I am trying to find brooder heat sources that are cheap and energy efficient. I found this on youtube and was wondering if you think this would work and keep the chicks warm enough, even though there is no electricity involved?

James

Answered your duplicate post here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/849096/brooder-heat-source/20#post_16263952

 

[GodofPecking]

I found this on youtube and was wondering if you think this would work and keep the chicks warm enough, even though there is no electricity involved?

James

I do pretty much the same thing by cutting holes in old fridges. They don't seem to need any extra heat.





So it's basically just a fridge laying down and has a hole for the chicks to in and out. Keeps them toasty warm just using their own bodyheat really. I did have a lamp in it for a while but if it was left on in the daytime the internal temperature was uncomfortable for the chicks. As a brooder without a heating bill, it's perfect and in many countries, free to build.

I've lined the holes with wood or tin or something to stop the chicks being able to eat the insulation because chooks eat polystyrene so I guessed they might try and eat the stuff in the fridge. There would be faster ways to line the hole though.

 

[Seatrout00]

That fridge brooder idea is probably the most innovative I've seen yet.

 

[GodofPecking]

That fridge brooder idea is probably the most innovative I've seen yet.

Thank you.

 

[blucoondawg]

Hey everyone, at the moment I am trying to find brooder heat sources that are cheap and energy efficient. [COLOR=333333]I found this on youtube and was wondering if you think this would work and keep the chicks warm enough, even though there is no electricity involved?[/COLOR]

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[COLOR=333333]James   [/COLOR]

It is recommended that newly hatched chicks are able to have an area heated to 90F their first week with the temperature allowed to drop 5F each week thereafter, this brooder will work ok with no supplemental heat so long as your climate allows them to maintain those parameters, I'm sure there is a little wiggle room on the temp due to each individual having different tolerances, but not much too much room, just know that if the temp drops too low it will cause the chicks to pile together to keep warm and they will crush each other. It's not fun to check your brooder and find a pile of chicks with the upper ones chilled and the lower ones dead because they have been crushed or suffocated by their flock mates. I prefer to have a heat source even if it gets a little too warm the chicks have the option to move away then move back if they get chilled. For my uses a broody hen is really the only replacement for a brooder and supplemental heat.

 

[Seatrout00]

Hey everyone, at the moment I am trying to find brooder heat sources that are cheap and energy efficient. I found this on youtube and was wondering if you think this would work and keep the chicks warm enough, even though there is no electricity involved?

James

I loved watching that, especially seeing how seriously bad arse those chicken farmers were using all manual tools! Very nice and accessible brooder on a budget.

 

[chooklover10]

I do pretty much the same thing by cutting holes in old fridges. They don't seem to need any extra heat. So it's basically just a fridge laying down and has a hole for the chicks to in and out. Keeps them toasty warm just using their own bodyheat really. I did have a lamp in it for a while but if it was left on in the daytime the internal temperature was uncomfortable for the chicks. As a brooder without a heating bill, it's perfect and in many countries, free to build. I've lined the holes with wood or tin or something to stop the chicks being able to eat the insulation because chooks eat polystyrene so I guessed they might try and eat the stuff in the fridge. There would be faster ways to line the hole though.

Can you use it from day one? Or are the chicks to young and need more heat?

 

[GodofPecking]

Can you use it from day one? Or are the chicks to young and need more heat?

Well of course I have to wait until the chicks don't need moving from the incubator into some other box that has food and water, but the timing is based on how much their cheeping annoys me in my bedroom. Which is just a few days I guess. The last batch I recall fixing up a heater for them indoors, so I guess there were just a few weeks for them, but I guess I'll be able to give you a good answer because I have some hatching tomorrow tonight and the next few nights and then maybe in a week later (somewhat disastrous incubation this time with eggs going in at different times and I think that caused the die-off in some of the smaller eggs.)

I do want to make a proper low energy substitute for a heat lamp. Heat lamps are far too primitive and wasteful, and hard to get in some places like here. I have a decent few thermostats so I'll add some 1 - 10 watt heat elements into a rag chicken (forget what it is called, the thing chicks can hide under to keep warm, it's fluffy).

There is very very little heat needed for the fridge though, it keeps the majority of heat in, radiant heat from the chicks is virtually trapped inside. The cold that gets in powers, and I guess super-charges, the ventilation in comparison to nests of things like burrowing Owls. Of course chickens, like parrots, will just nest in random cavities without worrying about stuffiness.

As a rule, I would say if you have a tunnel that is a bit larger than the animal, then it could wind into the fridge and block exposure to the cold outside. If there are a few chicks, and so long as they have food going into them and poop coming out of them, then they regulate their own heat pretty well. I DO put food inside of the fridge, and water, and a light to see them both by, for the chicks, so I guess there is less to worry over exposure-wise.

If you don't want to give them heat, I would make sure that they have a good bundle of cloth or towel with a lovely cavity inside of it, inside the fridge. Food, water, and light inside so they don't get exposed to the cold and a bit of a turn inside the door to stop direct exposure, then I doubt that they'd be unhappy with the fridge 'cavity nest' under any conditions.

Though I guess I like to get the little critters to know their parent, me, for a bit longer than just a day. So I probably keep them inside, close to me, for a week or two generally.

I'll keep you posted on this next batch.