BROODER thread! Post pics of your brooders!

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This is my 11th batch of chicks. The reason I have two is with one the temp is 70 ,they are very low wattage. I will take one out and take the temp. To see what it is thanks. Also there are two so they can switch off or be on together. I still have time to experiment.
Ah, mine is the red heat lamp from tractor supply and it is super hot with just one light.
 


RE-furbished dresser. We've tried selling, and giving away an old dresser. So besides taking it to the dump I decided, with my upcoming order of chicks coming in, to re-use it as a chick brooder. Essentially, the wood, hinges, latch, and hardware cloth were scavenged from previous projects. Just had $4 worth of screw to build it. I've added a side table, and shelf under it too (which was a dual purpose to sturdy the legs up and store stuff. I was able to add a removable divider by re-using the old drawer slides. Thankfully it was an old dresser and the back, or "bottom" now was real solid wood instead of the cheap thin stuff found in them now a days.
 
I have 10 chickens in my adult flock, a batch of 6 week old chicks(with a mama), a batch of 3 week old chicks(without a mama), and a batch that is hatching today in the incubator. I'm wanting to integrate everyone in the new chicken pen we just built (24' x 30').

My first concern is keeping the little ones warm. If I put out a heat lamp for them, will the litttle ones be smart enough to come in to the heat lamp when they get cold? I'll keep the ones hatching today warm in a brooder box for a few weeks.

Will the big chickens also like the heat lamp and keep the smaller ones from gettng to the heat?

2nd concern, if they are all allowed to roam together, will the bigger chickens hurt the little chickies (especially the chickies without a mama)?

I'm keeping the 6 week olds and the 3 week olds in 2 cages that are next to each other, hoping they will get to know each other and play nice when they are no longer in the cages.

is there anything else that I am not anticipating that I should have asked regarding this integration?

Thank you in advance for any advice you might have for me.

Bernadette
 
Another converted dog kennel. It works SO perfectly!

Deep bedding pine chips and hung the heat lamp inside.

The only complaint that I have is that these critters are going NUTS scratching the pine chips, and it fills up their water trough.

I have some landscaping wire cloth as a 'kick board' that keeps the chips in the kennel.

This is my first run at chicks, or chickens, for that matter. Seems like a perfect home until I can move them into the coop :)

 
Here's a picture of our "unique" brooder
It looks like two separate containers
However, my hubby came up with the idea of connecting them with a "tunnel" and he made it out of 1/2" by 1/2 " wire mesh and connected it to the containers by way of zip ties. I lined the outside wire with tape and put a paper towel down in the tunnel.The girls are loving it! The Ecoglow is in one side along with nipple waterer and food and the other side is much like a play pen along with a nipple waterer and fun things.
It's 5'x almost 2' and I have 8 babies. I think my hubby came up with a great idea
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I'm also using sand and am loving how easy it is. I added fresh sand along with DE and some soil from our yard and they have loved dust bathing.
 
We bought our chicks home yesterday morning and are so in love with them already! We have 11 day olds and 2 week olds. Our brooder at the moment is an extremely large cardboard box. When they start to get a little bigger we have another box that attaches on to make the brooder double the size. I was a bit unsure of using a cardboard box but they seem to really love it in there! We have a heat lamp running for night time and when we're not home, but during the afternoons it's quite warm here already so I've been putting a hot water bottle in the brooder and switching the light off for a bit. They seem to like the hot water bottle, most of them made their way to it straight away, even when the heat lamp was still on


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Wait till you really get hooked.......................I am working on a little pen right now that is 24 feet wide 6 feet tall and 58 feet long, covered on all sides, top, with wire guard all the way
around.................my goodness, what did I get myself into !!!!!!!!.......................heh heh heh heh..............enjoy.................it gets better !!!!!!!!!!! k4eqh................zip
 

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