Brooding different species

[mrslb333]

I need to make a brooder to house different species such as ducks,chicks, quail etc. I only need it to last until they are a week old or so but I'm lacking space to build completely separate brooders plus at the minute I only have 2 heat lamps available 250 watts.
I'm thinking of dividing a huge wooden box into four and somehow cutting a gap in them to share a lamp per 2 sections. Would this work or would I risk setting it on fire?

thanks in advance
Lucy x

 

[faykokoWV]

how many are your going to have in there? Is there any reason not to just let them all brood together in one box?

 

[mrslb333]

About 6 per section the bigger birds tend to really pick at the smaller ones so I have separate brooders but I was using Brinsea Ecoglows in plastic storage crates but they have all decided to stop working just as I have eggs pipping so having to find a stop gap. Would wire mesh be a better idea to section them off?

 

[shelleyd2008]

That would depend on the size of the wire, if the wire is too big the quail could get their heads caught.

I've brooded ducks and chickens, quail and chickens, even quail and ducks, together with very little problems. Personally, I wouldn't worry about it, if you want you could make sure the smaller ones have a place to hide, but otherwise they should be fine for a week. Unless, of course, you have button quail, cause you know how tiny those are! Though I have brooded buttons with serama before, granted, the buttons were about 2 weeks old when the seramas hatched, but they got along good....probably because they were all the same size

 

[mrslb333]

Quote:
I have Buttons, Coturnix, Serama's, Chicks and Guinea fowl and ducklings due in staggered hatches over the next week. Most will be go to their new homes at a day or two old luckily. I'm thinking Buttons on their own, Coturnix and Serama's together, Chicks and guinea fowl together and ducklings alone?

The ducklings being alone is to stop the other birds getting wet and dirty

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
I have Buttons, Coturnix, Serama's, Chicks and Guinea fowl and ducklings due in staggered hatches over the next week. Most will be go to their new homes at a day or two old luckily. I'm thinking Buttons on their own, Coturnix and Serama's together, Chicks and guinea fowl together and ducklings alone?

The ducklings being alone is to stop the other birds getting wet and dirty

I've brooded all of them together except for buttons, I usually keep them by themselves until they are a few weeks old so they are big enough to handle their own.
Coturnix with cochins bantams:

Day-old guineas and coturnix:

Seramas with buttons:

Seramas with a duck:

Coturnix with buttons:

Turkeys, EE and Silkie chicks:

And I think that's it for different species brooder pics. I have also brooded ducks and guineas together and they got along great, the guineas even get along with the coturnix quail, I've kept them together til the coturnix were old enough to go to breeder pens, about 8 weeks old.

See, the thing about brooding different species is that if they are hatched together they don't see anything 'wrong' with the situation. Granted, there are exceptions, I would never put bobwhites, pheasants, or other game birds together with anything but their own kind, but for most of them, as long as they aren't so big that they'll squish their brooder-mates there really isn't any problem. The biggest problem you face when mixing species is due to illness, and most baby birds don't have any

 

[shelleyd2008]

To keep the ducklings from wetting everything with their water just use a quail chick water base for them. I've used those for ducklings up to 3 weeks old and they don't have any problems drinking, plus they can't make a mess