BROODER thread! Post pics of your brooders!

[svanblargan]

My husband just finished our brooder in our pole barn! Right now they are in my mud room in a large clear rubbermaid container. This is our first time raising chicks, we have 8! 4 Ameraucanas, 2 Amberlink, and 2 black Australorps!

How did my hubby do?! Wpuldnlove some feedback!

 

[Chicksy]

Wow! I never thought of a dog crate! I was worried I'd have to buy a wash tub like they keep them in at Tractor Supply! Love the thread!

 

[melannrob]

Oh wow! I never thought of using a dog crate for a brooder. And I have one sitting in the basement I thought about selling too!

I did come up with another idea though.

I started with an old metal tub, which was obviously too small. You can see it in the video below.

[VIDEO]

I now switched to a bigger tub to give them more room, which you can see below.

[VIDEO]

I read somewhere that you should provide 2 1/2 square feet of brooder space per chick. I am still not there with my four and they have sure let me know it, too! I already see them trying to fly!

 

[koopmaster]

When we brought our 6 Isa Brown pullets home from TSC Friday we used the plastic tote with a heat lamp and mesh over it for 3 days

Then my wife spotted a child's pool behind the barn. She bleached it and thoroughly washed it out and did some handy work using cardboard and here is the new brooder

This is our first time raising chicks, we are really enjoying it!!

 

[melannrob]

I like the pool idea. It looks like the chicks have a lot more space to move around then the tote.

 

[Farmerchick76]

I made my first brooder that wasn't a dog cage today and I'm kinda proud of it because I've never built anything in my life out of lumber. The dog cage with a cardboard box inside was working fine until I went chick crazy this month.

 

[littlelune810]

Here is my pack n play brooder. Its a Graco taht has been through my 2 boys plus the boy that it was handed down to us from. I put a piece of plastic on one long side to prevent drafts, and an old crib sheet covers the other long side. The 2 short ends are open. The heat lamp is suspended from a garage ceiling rafter as well as clipped to a 7 foot fence board. I placed a small section of chicken wire ovee the top when the girls started trying to fly more. We use pine shavings inside and I have 6 chicks ranging from 1.5 to 2.5 weeks in there. They are very happy out in our garage and just today ventured outside for the first time.

 

[ladynewtochicks]

I am loving all these brooder pics and I've only made it to 2007 in the thread lol.

I get a portion of my chicks tomorrow, have my brooder all set up and holding a good temperature range. It is on our enclosed porch, I can open the door during the day but most likely will need to close it at night to keep a good temperature. It is a 100gal Rubbermaid horse tank with a warm end and a cool end, I scrapped together a hopefully cat proof lid(a freezer shelf, a dog kennel divider, and a piece of wood). The porch is 6ftx14ft approx. I'm shooting for 6chicks but it depends on what's available in the assorted bantam bin really lol, my plan is for:
1-2 bantams
1 black australorp
1 speckled Sussex
Possibly a barred rock
Then next week two SLWs from the next order

Is my brooder large enough to be their home for 2 weeks while I build their coop?
Is that going to be enough ventilation for them at that age or do I need to add a fan etc?

 

[BatChickCrazy]

Here is our Double Wide Brooder! We started w/ 1 plastic tub and knew quickly we would need something bigger for 6 girls.

* We used 30 Gallon clear plastic totes ($11/ea)
* We used an exacto knife to cut squares out of each side of the plastic (be careful to cut in the same spot on each tote so they match! Be careful when cutting. Try to score them first as they cracked at our first attempt. I just patched up the cracks with clear packing tape (I may have cussed a ltitle bit as well. Shhh!) and then we proceeded more carefully.

* We used the cut square plastic to make a tunnel with white duct tape
* On the lids we cut the tops and then added plastic mesh (it was much cheaper than the hardware cloth) and then used the same white duct tape to tape it on the inside so they can't escape cuz even at 2 weeks they were making attempts!

For water we are using the water nipples. I just used small plastic apple juice containers and wire we had around the house. I wrapped the wire around the bottles and use clear packing tape to keep it on. I wanted to make sure I could see how much water was left. I left enough wire so that I could wrap it over the edge of the totes to hang them. I LOVE them... no messy poopy water!

We also added some spare wood we had to make a few perches. We read they do better on wider perches so they can balance better. Anything for our girls!

 

[wildchickenmom]

Hi! Newbie chicken owner here! I've read a lot on the brooder thread (great info, thank you!)
Just trying to get some ideas in terms of size.
My spouse is going to build me a brooder tomorrow (I have 14 bielefelder chicks coming on Sunday) and I know what I'm using in terms of materials, etc. but still trying to figure out how big it should be!
TIA for any help