BROODER thread! Post pics of your brooders!

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my brooder box, homemade, for ducks
 
Building a large brooder half sand (3x3-3.5 ft) half wire floor (3x3-3.5 ft). Thinking the chicks will only have access to the sand area until 1.5 weeks then I will open the wire floor to give them more space. Will the 3x3.5 ft 1/2 inch hardwire cloth part be strong enough to hold the weight of 22 heavy breed chicks until 4ish weeks? How much does a 4 week old pullet weigh approx? How much space will 22 chicks need to stay in brooder for 4-5 weeks. I've seen so many different numbers and this is my first time raising chicks. Thanks in advance!
 
I have 15 BR's that are about 1 1/2 weeks. I had them in a box, 2 feet by 3 feet, and had to make one 4 feet by 4 feet by 2 feet high after only a week as they were kicking up the shavings into their waterer and it emptied and drenched the box! AND I had their waterer up on bricks!!

I found a post on here that said buy a sheet of OSB board and an 8 foot length of 2" by 2". Have the store cut 4 lengths of the OSB into 2' by 4's, then cut the 2" by 2" into fours...nail all together...I also topped mine with hardware cloth because I have a kittie that would love to have lunch and also the chicks are already starting to try to fly up and out of the box and they are getting pretty close to the top! I just nailed it on top, sewed two sections together with wire and put hook latches on the ends so I can open it. Oh, I did buy another piece of OSB and had them cut it in half and tacked it on the bottom as they are in my living room, but the other person just put it on the floor of their shop and said use a tarp or plastic for the floor, if needed. A very cheap and easy way to throw together a brooder and I guess you could get more elaborate with it if you wanted to?!

I have never had chicks/pullets on raised wire, so sorry, can't help there...maybe one of the others on here can? Hope that helps some? Good luck!

Thanks to all of you for your wonderful ideas you have posted here...I have gotten so many ideas from you all!!!
 
My indoor brooder...

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What a beautiful group...what are they?
It's 52" long, 27" high and 25" wide. I used a combo of clear greenhouse plastic & cardboard for the draft guard. Lamp is an 85 watt, red floodlight.


The babies, just after they arrived on 5/14/07...

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Pic from today, with roost and "sandbox"...

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Here's mine, it's pretty simple. Just a 110 gallon livestock waterer. Luckily I found a pallet that fit over the sides perfectly when I removed the bottom boards. I kept one board to slide under the pallet to raise or lower the heat lamp. The bedding is pine shavings, sweet PDZ, and a little DE. Today i gave them a box with sand, small wood chips and DE for dust bathing. They haven't jumped in it yet, but they're only 5 days old so time will tell. Tomorrow I'm building a double roost from a broom handle and some scrap wood, I hope they like it!

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new dog proof (hopefully) brooder. if anybody sees a way a small dog could get into this thing please let me know! we had an unfortunate incident this past spring with my dog (Jack Russell/velociraptor) getting into or last brooder and killing all 24 of our baby chicks
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we have since fixed his fence and also built this brooder so nothing like that ever happens again!!!!!!

the brooder is 4'x6'. it has a hinged door on either end. the hardware cloth is stapled, tacked, and has pieces of wood screwed on top of it so nothing can fall through it from the top.


we put in a removable divider so the chicks can have a smaller area for the first few days. and then have access to the whole thing after that.

the little roost bar is 8" off the ground.
 

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