Thanks everyone for the great ideas! I did the basic rubbermaid tub for the time being. Seems to be working great. We moved it to our laundry room and have the heat lamp attached to one of our cupboards.
This is my first picture, so I hope it works. Not to mention my first brooder and first chickens (due tomorrow.) My husband made it from materials he had in his workshop. I love that he put a window in the side so the little kids (5 & 7) could have a better view.
Well, I wish I would have read the reasons chicks die first!
We started with 30 and are down to 19, but the 19 seem to be doing well. We got the Rainbow Layers from McMurray. I started feeding them Milk with Erythromycin and that seemed to get them out of harms way. They are 3 weeks old now.
Now I just need to figure out how to post a pic. I have lots of them.
Our brooder is a plexiglass cigarette case, bought for $5.00 Cdn, that I used for raising salmon, then as a terrarium, later as a plant germination box and now modified for chicks. We call it 'Peepville.' The temperature ranges from 96 under the light (this week) down to 70 at the far reaches. We keep the water at the cooler end.
Here is a pic of my brooder from right before we got our chicks. It has worked out great so far. We used a 75 gallon aquarium that had a locking screen lid from back when we used to have snakes and it has worked great so far.