BROODER thread! Post pics of your brooders!

[RaskyKat]

The brooder is prepped 2 weeks ahead of a May 4th arrival of 15 day old chicks. After hemming and hawing over what I was going to use as a brooder, I SO LUCKED OUT! I was returning a few things to Lowes and sitting there in the Customer Service/Returns area was an empty box from a hot water heater--perfectly big enough for 15 baby chicks for a few weeks.

The box measures 24"x46" for a total of about 8 square feet. That's only .66 sf per chick which is way under what is needed. But like I said, they only need it for a few weeks, at which point...um...well, we'll cross that bridge later. The box is 21" tall which should be tall enough until I can put some chicken wire on it.

Check out the heat lamp as this might provide an idea for others. Again, I was hemming and hawing about how to mount and secure the lamp when it dawned on me, "I have just the thing!" I am a DJ by trade and I have a mic stand with a heavy cast iron base and a telescoping upright. So I have a lot of vertical inches to raise/lower the lamp.

This set up should work for a few weeks. Nothing fancy, but quick, easy and it will do in a pinch for a while.

 

[aart]

The brooder is prepped 2 weeks ahead of a May 4th arrival of 15 day old chicks. After hemming and hawing over what I was going to use as a brooder, I SO LUCKED OUT! I was returning a few things to Lowes and sitting there in the Customer Service/Returns area was an empty box from a hot water heater--perfectly big enough for 15 baby chicks for a few weeks.

The box measures 24"x46" for a total of about 8 square feet. That's only .66 sf per chick which is way under what is needed. But like I said, they only need it for a few weeks, at which point...um...well, we'll cross that bridge later. The box is 21" tall which should be tall enough until I can put some chicken wire on it.

Check out the heat lamp as this might provide an idea for others. Again, I was hemming and hawing about how to mount and secure the lamp when it dawned on me, "I have just the thing!" I am a DJ by trade and I have a mic stand with a heavy cast iron base and a telescoping upright. So I have a lot of vertical inches to raise/lower the lamp.

This set up should work for a few weeks. Nothing fancy, but quick, easy and it will do in a pinch for a while.

Mike stand is cool!.....but Please put something else to secure that lamp other than just the squeeze clamp.

Water heater box should last 15 chicks....oh about a week.....
....if you could get another box you could cut and tape them together to make it bigger, and you might need a mesh top by two weeks when they can jump out.

 

[slordaz]

We used a cleaned and sterilized plastic horse feeder to start out with, then did this one with a clamp and heat lamp. I found the chicks made a lot less mess as we split the feeder in half and left one open and the other closed to keep the pine shavings out of the feed they are actually eating, and as there's no shavings in the other one they aren't putting shavings in their water as much. just love to scratch and peck in it. We have 5 barred rocks, 1 Americana and a duckling in there. as it's open and in the house we did not do a perch as they try to escape anyways, but the coop will be finished this weekend and they will get to go out there for a bit. during the day as it's nice most days but can turn in a hear beat . Not sure on age of the chicks but they are at the 2 week mark at the house, obviously a couple were recently hatched or the others were held over for some reason at Cal ranch

this week we will also be getting something to put over top as some are getting big enough they get on top of the quart jar used in the waterer, luckily the boxer thinks it's his job to protect them, and for now they stay in there still, not sure measurements but they still got lots of running room and it's hilarious that the chicks like to play tug of war with the duck when it's given lettuce, they don't want it just don't want the duck to have anything they don't, as they think duckling is momma with no established flock. On that note the duck has a big bow of water and we take it outside to let it play in the water, Word of warning if you have a duckling in the mix, we lost one chick we didn't think could get in the big bowl at a week old, that tried to play duck in the middle of the night.

 

[RaskyKat]

Aart, no doubt about the clamp. I knew it would be weak when I ordered it (they always are). Will be working on some way to secure it the next few days, but thanks for the heads-up. About that mesh top...nah, I can't wait until the chicks can get out...we have cats! Yikes! Day One I'll have a chicken wire top on it. You say they will grow out of it in about a week?! Yeow! That's sooner than I thought! Another heads-up!

 

[aart]

Aart, no doubt about the clamp. I knew it would be weak when I ordered it (they always are). Will be working on some way to secure it the next few days, but thanks for the heads-up. About that mesh top...nah, I can't wait until the chicks can get out...we have cats! Yikes! Day One I'll have a chicken wire top on it. You say they will grow out of it in about a week?! Yeow! That's sooner than I thought! Another heads-up!

<thumbsup>

Yeah, you will be amazed at how fast they get big....maybe two weeks, but for sure think ahead.
Ask at Lowes if they have a refrigerator box....a couple of them

 

[ChefNiko]

I have 4 pullets (unsure of breed),2 Leghorns (female), and 2 unsexed feather-footed bantams.

 

[21hens-incharge]

I have 4 pullets (unsure of breed),2 Leghorns (female), and 2 unsexed feather-footed bantams.

You will I am sure simply LOVE the bantams. I know mine are a hit around here. Congrats on the little bitty babies.

 

[adkhunter1590]

Here's my two sets of chicks. Rubbermaid on the right is a straight run of Rhode Island reds. 6 of them. And Rubbermaid on the left is 6 red sex link pullets we just picked up tonight. The RIRs will be going on 3 weeks old soon. The sex links are supposed to be just a couple days old.

I actually just switched the RIRs over to a nipple feeder for water. I needed the one they had for the new set of babies. I showed them water coming out and even pushed a few of their beaks into it to show them. Only one (who I think is a roo) so far has taken a peck at it. But it is late and they all seemed tired. I know I am so I'm gonna leave them overnight and see how they do. Hopefully they won't dehydrate. I read it's best to remove all other water sources so hopefully that's true.

Had to put some wire on top the RIRs. Found one standing on the top of it today. And one laying on top the old water can that I moved over to the new babes side. So far the sex links have done nothing but sleep really. Two of them wandered around for a bit, ate, drank and went back to bed. Wife thinks something wrong with them. I told her they are fine. Hoping I'm right!

 

[ehunter]

Get my chickies today!! Here's their first brooder ready to go! This will last first three weeks then they move to bigger brooder in our workshop. This box is 5.5 square feet for 10 chicks (read that .5 square feet / chick is ideal for first three weeks).
It's two cardboard boxes duct taped together, lined with puppy pee pads and flax bedding. Homemade feeder and Eco glow brooder. Painters tape on top for easy cleaning. Will install nipple waterer next week. I'm so happy how this turned out. Hubby made hardware cloth lid.

 

[Grain Gypsy]

We are SOOOO excited for the arrival of our day-old chicks, which will be ready for us to pick up from the post office in the morning! We will be adding them to a brooder which is also housing our 3-week-old brood that we got as day-old chicks on April 7. All total, there will be 22 chicks brooded in this box this spring. Here are pictures with explanations:


We just added a wire mesh divider screen tonight to prepare for the arrival of the day-old chicks tomorrow. That way they can get used to one another "through the window" without the 3-week-olds being able to trample or bully the newbies.

Here is the 3-week-old side of the brooder. Notice that I drilled on a board to clip the heat lamp on to. I am not sure how much longer they'll want or need heat, but this will allow us to make adjustments to the heat on their side to suit their needs.

This is the baby brooder side. I took the Ecoglow away from the 3-week-old chicks and put it in the side for the babes. I like the Ecoglow for the fact that the new babies can self-regulate their temperatures by going under and out from under the Ecoglow, as needed.

I used a light-duty stapler and stapled up hardware cloth to attach the nipple waterers to. These waterers were specified gerbil/small animal waterers at the feed store. The hardware mesh and wire loops that I use to hold the bottles on with are easily adjusted up to grow with them.

We use a 4-H, 7-lb feeder with our chicks from the get-to. It starts out on the ground, but we move it up using a steady base of bricks as spacers as they grow so the feeder will always be about chest level for them.