BROODER thread! Post pics of your brooders!

[k4eqh]

Atabby..........................Looks like the little darlins are having fun keeping warm.......good idea with the waterbottle...............enjoy.............................k4eqh................zip

 

[Bens-Hens]

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

How many chicks do you plan on keeping in that monster and until what age?

I am beginning to think I might need a bigger brooder with our next hatch!

 

[k4eqh]

Bens-Hens,

heh he heh heh heh .....I dont do Chickens............BUT, I do raise Red Golden Pheasants, Guineas, Lady Amherst pheasants,
and low and behold.....I have 5 peafowl.....The pen I have mentioned above is for Peafowl, (the five listed), and next spring I plan
on expanding so I can have two or three more varieties of peafowl.....Whites, Java Greens, and probably Black Shoulders. At
this time I have 5 India Blue shoulder peafowl. Two Hens and 3 peacocks. I started out with the phesants and then added
the peafowl. The peafowl are alot of fun, wonderful to be around, and easy to raise......but I also enjoy our pheasants, and do
offer some of those for sale in the fall................thankx for your inquiry.........and have fun with your chicks....its a great hobby,
and alot of companionship in the yard........we enjoy all our fowl......................k4eqh...............zip

 

[Sam3 Abq]

What material is on the sides ? Wire only ? or Lexan/plexi-glass? Like this alot.

 

[kentuckychicks]

Her is the brooder that I made.  Its 4'x4' with a depth of 18" and the top is 3' off the floor so no more bending over.  Both sides of the top open and it can be divided to make 2 brood areas.  Needless to say it will hold alot of chicks.  Its worked out real well.

The lights are on the outside of the wire so there is no chance that they will fall into the brooder.  I put shavings down, then newspaper and then a piece of fabric to give the chicks a nice surface to begin with and after a few weeks I just take the cloth and newspaper out and they are on shavings.  The fabric can be washed and used again with the next batch. 


Georgia

Tada lightbulb! My husband is really starting to hate this site! Lol! I keep finding him projects. He just told me i have to stay off this site until he makes some progress on his honey do list. Idea stolen hope you don't mind!

 

[k4eqh]

Nice Job on the brooder box......simple, to the point and like you say....you dont have to bend over to work in it....great ideas...................k4eqh.............zip

 

[Jewelwing]

Here is my brooder. It is 3'x7', and the sides are 20" above the inside floor of the brooder. Not a lot of thought went into this project - I just used pieces of scrap wood we had lying around from other projects, and my 11-yr old daughter and I put this together over 2 days.

The orange 1x12's are from a set of shelves we had made that didn't fit anywhere when we moved a couple years ago. So into a brooder they go! The top is hinged so we can open it from either side. The bottom frame rests on the floor, of course, but the bottom piece of OSB inside doesn't - it rests on top of a frame of 2x4's that are inside the frame you can see. This thing is heavy!



Here it is with one side open. We covered the bottom with an old plastic dropcloth, tucking it in the edges and bringing it part-way up the walls. We blocked off a small section for the chicks when they're young, and put rubber shelf liner in that part. We figured by the time they could get over the barrier, we'd put wood chips everywhere and let them use the barrier as a perch.



Here are our 10 little babies!




Here they are at 7 days old. They were already hopping over the barrier, so we moved it and opened up the whole space to them. Turns out they were so fun to watch, we had to set up chairs around the brooder!




Here they are at 6 weeks old. Anxious to move into their coop (which wasn't yet quite finished!). Suddenly the brooder doesn't seem as spacious as it did before!



Still working on finishing the coop (they're 11 weeks old now), but it's been done enough to live in for several weeks. Mostly I'm finishing up the run now. They're a lot of fun, but I wish I'd had the coop and run all ready before I got the chicks!

 

[Sam3 Abq]

like this a lot - planning our 1st flock for spring 2014. we're only planning on 7 hens at most and i'm afraid if we get a Rubbermaid container for them they'll outgrow it in one week ? like the idea of small area for them when chicks to 1 week then opening up all the way for remaining weeks. thanks for sharing.

 

[Bens-Hens]

I am definitely going to have to expand our brooder!

Nice job on the book shelf conversion.

 

[lovingmelon]

Our chicks are about 3 weeks old now..and we just transferred them into this makeshift brooder in the enclosed portion of the coop outside. Even though we only have 6, and had a large Rubbermaid container acting as their brooder, we felt like they were getting pretty cramped.
This seems to be working fine for now, except I am worried that one is going to try and fly, and get a foot caught in the chicken wire. We'll see! Hopefully I will feel comfortable enough soon to let them roam the whole box.