BROODER thread! Post pics of your brooders!

[sgtmom52]

remuda1
Thank goodness I found this one on Craig's List for a really good price. It's outdoors in the run under cover and they've been in it since they were about 1.5 weeks old. They love it

[url :

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g68/remuda1/Chickens 2011/239.jpg[/URL]
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g68/remuda1/Chickens 2011/233.jpg

I'll keep them in this one as long as I possibly can. I need to make a good sized grow out pen within the run so that the older chicks can get used to seeing them at eye level

and hopefully that will help with integration later on. I am LOVING seeing all of these brooders, some really great ideas and creative folks on these forums.

Wow ~ great find! That one looks like it is built like Fort Knox!​

 

[Ivywoods]

Quote:

Wow ~ great find! That one looks like it is built like Fort Knox!

That's one heavy duty brooder! Looks like it would work great as long as temps were reasonable.

 

[remuda1]

Hahaha

. It IS built like Fort Knox! Temps have been anything but reasonable.... Meaning that it's been really hot but I've been making sure that they stay cool enough with containers of wet play sand to scratch and lay in and I'm giving them wet mash a couple of times a day. Nights are in the high 70s so they'll still be getting a heat lamp for a couple of weeks or so. Yesterday I put a gel freezer pack in there with them as well. My husband laughed and called it the chick spa.

One of the best things about it is that I know I will never have to buy another one!! And it was only $100, that's less than the cost of the materials that it took to build it. It's large enough too to isolate adult birds later on if needed as well. Hope y'all have a great day, I better go check those little toots..... It's another warm one

Ivywoods, is that a Great Pyrenees on your avatar?

 

[Chickangel79]

this is what i start with for a week

Then its off to the big brooder. Its a cold frame for plants but removed a window and wired it. (its stored in the caraven so 'scuse the mess)

 

[Dybael]

Originally, I had a Rubbermaid tub for my six little chicks, but they outgrew it so fast. The Eglu has a small run attached, so I put a sheet of plastic underneath it, blocked off the front portion of the run with cardboard panels, and filled it with pine shavings to use as a transitional brooder. You can see that I left a log in there while I went to search for an appropriately-sized stick to lay across the fencing as a roost... but the chickens prefer perching in the corner on that big wad of newspaper I hastily stuffed in to fill in the gap the cardboard didn't quite cover.

 

[Ivywoods]

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Yes. It's a great pyrenees. We have 3 of them to guard our livestock.

 

[kurt s]

I used a big 2x6 cardboard box. When they started to fly around I added another box. Then I put a couple of branches in there for roosting practice. I'll post pics when I get 10 posts done.

 

[mallory2013]

Here is my brooder. It is just a large dog crate. I used the cardboard brooder seperater stuff that TSC had in that chick kit they sold to cover up the slots so they can't get out. The heat lamp contains a ceramic bulb which so far is working out GREAT, its staying at a steady 90 degrees, and the chicks are going under it as they please.

The crate is on a tarp and the entire thing is lifted off the ground with patio bricks:

Look how clean it was....

 

[polishchickens111]

I had them in an old ferret cage for 1 week, 6 days, and then today as a 2-week old present we made a HUGE brooder out of PVC pipe. I had read about using PVC to make a coop, but we have too many predators. It works really well. It's 5x2.5x2, for 6 chicks. they have room to wander through and choose a temperature. There is a pan of dirt in the middle that they dig in. I use a tiny mini-frisbee as a platter for treats.

 

[Ivywoods]

Quote:
That sounds really interesting. Is there any way you could post a picture?

I recently got a stacking brooder. It is all galvanized metal. It was used, so there is some rust, but still very usable. It has 5 sections that stack on top of each other. It is very much like the ones I've seen at Orscheln's and other farm stores when they get their chicks in. I was getting so tired of bending over my stock tanks.

Anyway, I just recently got two sets of chicks in them. I'm not sure I've got the system down very well yet. The poop falls through the screen that the chicks are on, into some metal pans below them. The pans slide right out for cleaning. The problem is that the pans are very shallow. I put shavings in there to catch some of the poops so it doesn't stick to the pan. The shavings fill the pan up though, even with a very small layer. Then the poop is almost right up agains the screen under the chicks, even after one day.

I put some freezer paper in one of the pans instead of shavings to see how that would work. I'm not sure I like that, either. I like to compost all my droppings, and I don't know how the freezer paper will do with that. ALSO it seems like it stinks more.

Anyone got any ideas of what I can put in those pans to catch the poops so it doesn't stick to the pan that would compost well? I don't really want to use sand, either. I don't have ready access to it and I don't really want to add that much sand to my garden.