BROODER thread! Post pics of your brooders!

[CB3fish]

Thank you, good picks. I have just set up a brooder and will send in a pic. It is on my lanai which also has ants from time to time. Soooooo, I sprayed white vinegar on the outsides of the brooder and eureka, no ants. Ants do not like vinegar. I am hoping this will keep them away.

 

[Chickassan]

Ok, here is mine. Known fact i'm cheap and sometimes a little lazy so this is what iv'e come up with for a brooder. Its a pop up dog pen and it is awesome! Bottom comes off so you can roll up the used litter like an burrito and dispose then just hose it off. It is fold up and light so moving it to the coop is easy. Top zips up no escapes, sides have zipperd windows to make chick sized panic holes. The thing has windows all around so the chicks see everything and don't freak out so easy. I paid 10 bucks for it on ebay because it had damaged packageing,it has so far had 3 runs of chicks in it and it is still going strong.

 

[feathermaid]

I bought the Urban Coop on Amazon to use as our brooder and as a chicken hospital when we need it in the future. It's great in our craft room that has been converted to the brooding room for the next few weeks.

This is a rabbit hutch that i got from amazon that was supposed to be 3 times the size it is. Amazon said it was a chicken coop (cough*liars*cough) It said it was 90 inches but once i got it it was only 45 inches..... /me slaps Amazon for fake advertizing this thing.
However It is working really nice as a brooder. it just sucks it cost me over $150 for this thing.(rip off everyone Amazon?) anyways so i got a heat lamp and opened the top and have the chicks in it. The best part is the drawer. it sames time when cleaning since it is metal and quick clean up for the poo storm these 3 girls pump out every day lol...View attachment 1291606View attachment 1291607

I don't know why I never thought of using those tiny prefab coops as a brooder.
What a great idea! And a bonus to be able to use it later as a hospital if necessary... or even a separation pen for a bully.

 

[feathermaid]

So I inherited this gigantic plastic tote and used it as a brooder back in 2016 for my first chicks.

I really hated using the heat lamp, especially at night. Then I thought I came up with this original idea of a heating pad box:
Where chicks could go at night and sleep in the dark and not be disrupted by the light glaring on them. I didn't know anything about the Mama Heating Pad concept
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...er-picture-heavy-update.956958/#post-14882145 at the time, so I only put it in the brooder at night and took it out in the morning so they had more room to roam around. I upgraded the size of the box as they grew, but MHP is a much better idea I'll be using that this next time.

Anyway, this is shortly before they moved out to the coop. I made those screen covers early on as soon as they started flapping around and escaped a couple times (only one screen is pictured here):

 

[CB3fish]

Looks great, my chicks vote with their feet, I notice if they feel cool they are under the lamp if not they move away.

 

[CB3fish]

I have the exact tote and it works great for now.

 

[TexiCaliBlues]

Hello Everyone!! I saw this thread and wanted to share what we did to give our "girls" (fingers crossed lol) more room to spread their wings I do want to add that we live in the I.E in Southern Cal. This is relevant because the days get pretty hot this time of year. Our house was also built in 1920, so there is no central air. We cool our home with a window a/c centrally located, however it does not really reach the area where the chicks are located, so this room stays pretty warm. I do still use a infrared nocturnal heat lamp, but it is a mere 75 watt and really only used at night to ensure temps don't drop too low for the babies' comfort. I'm brand new to chickens, and agonized over temps at first... but with a little help from my BYC "pocket experts " have come to realize that these little fuzz butts will let me know if they're cold, and overheating seems to be a greater issue. Sorry for the dissertation, but I wanted to give some insight to my thought process in case anyone else is going through the same paranoia of having BABY ALIENS in their home for the first time
We started with a 35 gallon tote, which was plenty of space.... for the first week. Then our BO started getting flappy and our LBrahma looked to be hot and uncomfortable... I also have a little BA that was so tiny she clearly needed warmer temps than the LB. I decided the only way to achieve the temp variance I needed was to add space... Plus, now I shouldn't need another space until they are ready for the coop! I am fortunate enough to have access to PLENTY of free cardboard, so this is what I used. It was super simple once I got started! The best part is, now the chicks have plenty of room to find their comfy spot...AND since they have more floor space, I get to watch them run around and play!

 

[Compost King]

One of the best brooders I ever made was out of straw bales with a sheet of hardware cloth over it. I did lose a chick which I found under a bale when I took it apart. I used Straw Bales because I knew I was going to use the straw anyways and that way I wasn't buying permanent materials for a temporary structure.

 

[paneubert]

Did not read 355 pages, but I can see from the last couple that people have been discovering the "pop up" play yards work well. I will be using something similar, but also slightly more sturdy. We have a play yard from our kids that uses solid "poles" in an X pattern to provide more structure, but still allow it to collapse down to a very small size when not in use. It is not super obvious, but the light grey straps you see in the photo tighten around the bottom of each "corner" of the hexagon and make it so that you could toss this thing across the room/into the air and it will maintain its shape/stay open. I figure it will make hanging a light as well as creating a ceiling easier and less floppy.

• 14 square feet, 48 inches wide and stands tall at 26 inches

 

[anderstr196]

I used the tub from inside my broken dishwasher. That was fun taking it apart lol. Then I had to open the hole to extend to a box when I ended up with 24 chicks.