BROODER thread! Post pics of your brooders!

[FrChuckW]

Quote:
Nikki, Once you move the chicks out of the brooder and into a coop/run you can give them a seperate container of grit and a seperate container of crushed oyster shell. The grit will help them grind up the food as it passes through the gizzard from the crop. The oyster shell will aid the hens in replacing the calcium used up in producing the shell of the egg. As others have already stated, as long as they are just eating the starter crumbles they don't need anything other than water. Once they start getting other foods, then you will need to start giving them grit.

 

[Spires6]

Ours is a 49 gallon storage container lined with an empty pizza box, newspaper and pine shavings. Simple and cheap.

 

[FarmerMack]

Quote:
"Better living with Rubber Maid"

, nice job. I think the tote idea is great as a "starter box" but they grow so fast

 

[Spires6]

When they get past the first few weeks, I put them outside in the daytime in large wire cages(old rabbit cages) with a piece of tin over top for shade and rain protection. I move the cages to a different grassy area each day so they have fresh grass and bugs and get used to being outside. At night they go back in the garage in a storage container with a piece of wire cage over it. Last year I tried moving them out to our barn at night and woke the next morning to little chick parts scattered through the barn.

Once they are 2 months old they will go out to our chicken tractor and "free range" inside an electric fenced area.

 

[countrybum]

godfry n. glad :

I've been wondering about the whole 'grit' thing since it came up. I've never gone out of my way to provide any grit...nor any oyster shells. My sigoth had me crush up egg shells and add them back into the scratch, a PITA in my opinion. I much prefer the idea I read in one of the books of giving them occasional treats like cottage cheese. My girls belief in cheeses...any cheeses. They'll scarf it right up...and have fun doing it. I love the gusto with which they approach special treats.

If I know correctly the grit is to replace calcium and give the egg a hard shell. My grit and oyster shells ran out a couple weeks ago and I went to pick up an egg that just crushed in my hand. So I will be getting their grit and shells out today.​

 

[JudyMcKinn]

Quote:
If I know correctly the grit is to replace calcium and give the egg a hard shell. My grit and oyster shells ran out a couple weeks ago and I went to pick up an egg that just crushed in my hand. So I will be getting their grit and shells out today.

Could you have confused grit and oyster shell? I believe the grit is to grind up the food in the gizzard, and the oyster shell is the one providing the calcium for the stronger shell.

 

[countrybum]

Judy you're right, boy did I mess that up or what?

Brain wake up.

 

[hyzenthlay]

Well, here's my brooder, in all its glory, lol. It is a large dog crate (St. Bernard size), set up on the large table in my basement where I usually start my seedlings. I taped paper grocery bags around the outside, to prevent the shavings from falling out the sides too much. The red heat lamp is inside the crate for now, and the fluorescent lamps on top were just for the purposes of getting enough light for pictures--I don't leave them on. After I took these pictures, I got nervous that the chickies could squeeze out through the bars in the places where I didn't have the paper bags attached, so I covered those areas with chicken wire on the outside (I wanted something they could see through, so that they would get used to seeing me and the family).

There are two chicks in there now, and we'll be adding a third next week--should be plenty of space for the little cheeps!

 

[RockyToggRanch]

 

[SportTees]

Quote:
Best kind!!

I wish mine would go broody