BROODER thread! Post pics of your brooders!

[Natalierose]

Update: the bigger girls love the roost!

 

[Fuzzy Moto]

Here is my brooder Pics :






Any one guess what I'm using???

As I am a first time Chick Daddy, any suggestions or comments are welcome. This will be for eleven (11) chicks, one possible two roosters included in that number. I have no Idea what they will be, as they are Murray McMurray choice layers mix plus one Giant Jersey Black rooster (15 minimum plus chosen rooster plus one mystery chick minus the 6 my co-worker is taking off my hands). I will post pictures once they have arrived on the 6th of April.

For those of you that are old enough: My chickens go to Eleven.

 

[Jculpepper]

here are my new babies all doing great.

 

[kona26]

Finally built the top

 

[LLCoyote]

Ok don't laugh at me, but I read somewhere online that cardboard boxes make the best brooders because you can add onto them. Well... that isn't exactly what we did but we did have tons of cardboard and a lot of gorilla tape and various bits of fencing I washed (for fear of any bird poo on them, and some how we wound up with this. The lid is the only thing we could find and don't worry it was very well tested by shaking, throwing things on top of it, and bumping the box around (I've been trying to figure out a different system for a lid to no avail -_-, I didn't think about that when I made this thing so big). I used puppy pads on the bottom and pine shavings on top of those... they dislike letting them lay flat and pretty.



Even though it looks really hodgepodge and crazy they seem to like it. The only thing they don't like is water without shavings in it. -_- I'm going to make a barrier between the lamp and the rest of the cage tonight though. Little boogers are starting to jump really high.

 

[IndiesChix]

I think it looks great.

 

[21hens-incharge]

Ok don't laugh at me, but I read somewhere online that cardboard boxes make the best brooders because you can add onto them. Well... that isn't exactly what we did but we did have tons of cardboard and a lot of gorilla tape and various bits of fencing I washed (for fear of any bird poo on them, and some how we wound up with this. The lid is the only thing we could find and don't worry it was very well tested by shaking, throwing things on top of it, and bumping the box around (I've been trying to figure out a different system for a lid to no avail -_-, I didn't think about that when I made this thing so big). I used puppy pads on the bottom and pine shavings on top of those... they dislike letting them lay flat and pretty.



Even though it looks really hodgepodge and crazy they seem to like it. The only thing they don't like is water without shavings in it. -_- I'm going to make a barrier between the lamp and the rest of the cage tonight though. Little boogers are starting to jump really high.

Chickies have ROOOMMMM. That is AWESOME that you made it with enough space for them to really move about. Mine are still inside in the 3x5 brooder and it is getting crowded. Moving mine to the larger brooder inside the coop on Saturday after yet another cold snap passes.

 

[JCB42013]

Posted in the wrong topic, replied about duck brooders. Dont know how to delete posts. Sorry

 

[thaifighter]

Our brooder is very simple... Since this is a temp shelter until they are big enough to move outdoors we followed a progression from week-olds until about 3 weeks and upgraded. The first Brooder was for 16 chicks and was a fairly large horse trough. Two weeks and change later we had 15 chicks (RIP McNugget) and upgraded to a 32 sq ft brooder pen.

Simply put, I took a 7/16" sheet of osb sheathing and built a foldup, 3 wall pen around it. The side panels are 4' long and the main panel is 8 feet long. The vertical legs are 3' high and sit between the base and top plates. total height is 3' 3". There is a 3' removable panel in the middle of the main panel that allows easy stepover access. the side panels are held square and tight to the edges of the OSB sheet with short cross braces that also serve to support our heat lamps.

The beauty of this design is that when the kids are ready to move to their new coop=run that's under construction, the brooder will fold up and with the plywood take up about an 8' x 6" floor space against a wall until ready for use again.

Total expenses as follows:

8 2x4 studs at $3 each
1 4x8x7/16 sheet of OSB $8
chicken wire guessing about $5 off the roll we bought
4 sets hinges $7

total was roughly $45 and an afternoon spent gathering, cutting and assembling. So far it works great.

 

[aart]

Great brooder...would love to see if folded up when you're done with it.

VERY SCARY HEAT LAMPS @thaifighter ......please, please secure those lamps.
A couple of long deck screws thru the loops at an angle should stop them from even thinking about slipping off.