BROODER thread! Post pics of your brooders!

[spook]

Quote:
AAAAAAAAHhhaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaaa, when I was a teen, I used to bring my geese in the house for a bath in the winter! Let them dry off on the porch and when they were ready they would go out, head to their house and I'd follow to lock them in for the rest of the day to stay warm.
What a hoot, I am not the only one that knows what bleach is really for! Heeehhhheeeee hee.

 

[Animallover606]

I know this was bad but when my chickens were little babies They were on news paper not a thing happened to they must' uve been very strong chicks

 

[DawnSuiter]

Quote:
bad? I can't agree with that... traditional maybe... but I suppose there has been a lot of learning over the years and these BYC folks just want everyone to know there is a safer alternative, like towels etc. I used newpaper as well, my chicks are fine too, as did the breeder I got them from with his hundreds & hundreds of day old chicks. 3 day olds were on wood chips already!

 

[Robin L]

Quote:
Wow I love this idea! How creative!!!

 

[mylittlehof]

I am a newbie at this and set up this brooder and it seems to be working really well so I thought I would send pix. I used an old dog crate and surrounded the sides with cardboard (we have cats). then put in a cardboard box with the end side cut down. The food and water are outside the cardboard box. I set up a "play-yard" for them surrounded by wire enclosure and secured it with cardboard also. At night I close them in the crate and move it into a shed, the rest of the set up is on our carport.

The inside of the dog crate part:

The dog crate attached to the playyard:

enjoying the hop:

 

[Robin L]

Looks great Sarah! They seem like it too

 

[Yanna]

I am too embarrassed to post a photo!!!

We just brought our first chicks home today (unexpectedly- we were *supposed* to be bringing home chicks from a different shipment next week!) and I "improvised" with (ahem!) a large cardboard box lined with a layer of plastic and some shavings and a lid made from a salvaged mini-palette with hardware cloth on it.

The hardware cloth isn't stapled on yet because I bought the wrong size staples for my new staple gun.

At first, all I had was a 100 watt white bulb in a bare fixture with no reflector. Thankfully, they actually had brooder lights at the big box hardware store when we went there later for tin snips. Now the girls (girl? one may be a cockerel?) have a proper heat lamp on them.

I'm thinking now of building a plywood box to fit the lid and lining it with sheet vinyl to keep as a brooder/small animal infirmary.

Phew. One day with chicks and I'm exhausted (but good exhausted)!

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
It's not a best brooder contest. The whole point is to give people different ideas. I've used scrap wood lying around, cardboard boxes, rubbermaid containers, chicken wire and tarps... To me the best ones are the free ones made of "what ya got" rather than the designer brooder made out of a hundred bucks of lumber...

 

[Robin L]

Quote:
It's not a best brooder contest. The whole point is to give people different ideas. I've used scrap wood lying around, cardboard boxes, rubbermaid containers, chicken wire and tarps... To me the best ones are the free ones made of "what ya got" rather than the designer brooder made out of a hundred bucks of lumber...

Yep I totally agree

 

[mylittlehof]

I agree with the last two posts - the only thing I bought new for the brooder that I posted was the thermometer. The rest I reused from past pets and projects. I'm big on reuse and recycle!! I've enjoyed being creative for my new babies!

I modified the brooder just a bit and wanted to share! I added a perch for the girls. They seem to really like hoping up on it, but don't seem to want to sleep on it yet. I just cut slots in the side of the interior box and slid in a 1/2 an inch or so off the ground.

I also added a rock to the play yard and chicken "queen of the mountain" was very entertaining!