brooder ?

[earnhardtlvr]

Have a ? about the brooder. By April 13th we r going to have at least 24 chicks from 3 days old to 2 weeks old. 1. Do we need to seperate the baby babies? 2. What size should the brooder be? Do we really need to have a foot of space for each chick? If we do we were going to rethink because we r just using a cardboard box and go ahead and get a sheet of plywood and build a bigger box. Will have to get some more heat lamps and such. What size shuold the box be? like a 5x5 area?

 

[Nicole01]

Not sure on the brooder size. I'd imagine it must be big enough to hold the chicks for a few weeks until they have their feathers. The temp needs to be 95 degrees for the first couple weeks. I'm pretty sure you keep them together unless they are severely picking on one another. I've read that red heat lamps eliminates the fighting and stress.

 

[lady feathers]

My suggestion would be to start with them in seperate brooders (can be as simple as a rubbermaid container) or at least divide the brooder space... they don't have to start with 1 sq ft of space just assume they will by weeks 5-8 that they will need it(whenever you decide to move them to the coop-depends on your weather/wen they are fully feathered).

Once you have them you will be able to tell if they need more space when they start to look cramped, start picking, etc... I suggest two seperate/divided spaces just because you need to be able to tell which of your newest fuzz butts are or are not eating and drinking... sometimes those 2 week olds can push/step on the others because they already know a good thing when they see it! After the newbies start to feather (I move mine together if they are within two weeks of age). Just need to decide if you want to start and finish in one space or add more lamps/bulbs and smaller spaces (rubbermaids etc...) and thin down each group to allow for more space as you go along. Either way will work, good luck and have fun!