Building an outdoor brooder, should I insulate it?

[Stewarts]

Try giving them plain, unflavored yogurt for the bacteria they need to help their digestive systems. I mixed yogurt and chick starter or grower together for them as a daily treat, never had a sick bird.

 

[shmccarthy]

That's really good advice, thanks. I'll put it to good use because I'll be raising a lot more chicks this coming year.

I made a few adjustments to the rough draft.
I made the brooder slightly bigger so now the floor space is going to be 8x4. I will insulate it so it will be under 32sq feet but I'm not sure the exact measurements. I also decided to move the small door up on the front of the brooder so it has wall space around it. This is because I am going to use sand in my brooder so it's cleaner, less smelly and not as messy as pine shavings. I've had a lot of instances with spilling water and food and it will be a lot easier to clean up if that happens.
So I should put the vents above the roosts, correct? I'm also making sure the heat lamp will be adjustable so I can move it how I like it. My main concern with that though is it may be difficult to remove the heat lamp for any reason.

 

[Stewarts]

If you intend using it as a brooder ONLY, 4 feet wide would work. But if you intend it to be for brooder and coop, even a short term coop, because you said you had an outdoor run, it needs to be wider than 4 feet. My coup is 8x6 wide and I'm finding that the 6 feet wide we allowed is too narrow. Come spring, we have to build an addition onto the coop. Right now they are also using a 12x8 hutch attached to the back of the coup, but its just tarped in with no insulation. It gives them an extra area to go into during the day but the coop is pretty cramped at night with 16 chickens and 3 turkeys. 2 turkey hens actually, the male is being done in today. Still, 16 chickens and 2 turkey hens need a lot of room.

How are you going to insulate it? We insulated the inside between the studs of the walls, then covered the walls with feeder bags and finally, cardboard. These things help hold in the warmth. If you go this route, it will make it heavier to move. If going with Styrofoam it would be lighter and much easier to move. You'd have to cover the styrofoam with something.

The heat lamp can be put in, in such a way that all you have to do it lift or lower it. My question is, how are you going to see inside whether the lamp is to high or too low with no windows in the sides of the brooder? When cold, chicks pile on top of each other and squish the little ones at the bottom to death. When too hot, the scatter to the four corners trying to get as far away from the heat source as possible. You will need a way to look in and monitor their response to the heat lamp in order to position it just right and make adjustments from time to time.

Two ventilation areas above the roosts on either side should do it. Hot air rises so you'd have to monitor just how cool it gets where you put the brooder and how it cools off the inside. The chicks will always tell you what they need as far as heat and cooling. If its too warm in there, it will create a lot of humidity from the water source - something you don't want! And you'll have to monitor how quickly the water is used up or evaporated inside a totally enclosed brooder like the one you are building.

Good Luck

 

[shmccarthy]

If you intend using it as a brooder ONLY, 4 feet wide would work. But if you intend it to be for brooder and coop, even a short term coop, because you said you had an outdoor run, it needs to be wider than 4 feet. My coup is 8x6 wide and I'm finding that the 6 feet wide we allowed is too narrow. Come spring, we have to build an addition onto the coop. Right now they are also using a 12x8 hutch attached to the back of the coup, but its just tarped in with no insulation. It gives them an extra area to go into during the day but the coop is pretty cramped at night with 16 chickens and 3 turkeys. 2 turkey hens actually, the male is being done in today. Still, 16 chickens and 2 turkey hens need a lot of room.

How are you going to insulate it?   We insulated the inside between the studs of the walls, then covered the walls with feeder bags and finally, cardboard. These things help hold in the warmth. If you go this route, it will make it heavier to move. If going with Styrofoam it would be lighter and much easier to move. You'd have to cover the styrofoam with something. 

The heat lamp can be put in, in such a way that all you have to do it lift or lower it. My question is, how are you going to see inside whether the lamp is to high or too low with no windows in the sides of the brooder?  When cold, chicks pile on top of each other and squish the little ones at the bottom to death. When too hot, the scatter to the four corners trying to get as far away from the heat source as possible. You will need a way to look in and monitor their response to the heat lamp in order to position it just right and make adjustments from time to time.

Two ventilation areas above the roosts on either side should do it. Hot air rises so you'd have to monitor just how cool it gets where you put the brooder and how it cools off the inside. The chicks will always tell you what they need as far as heat and cooling. If its too warm in there, it will create a lot of humidity from the water source - something you don't want!  And you'll have to monitor how quickly the water is used up or evaporated inside a totally enclosed brooder like the one you are building.

Good Luck

The brooder will be next to the run, but I already have 2 coops and I only intend to use this for brooding. We have actual rolls of insulation in the attic so we were just going to use that and the feed bags and cardboard is a good idea to cover it, so we will probably do that. I'm not too worried abut moving it, the only time I intend to move it is outside after it's done being built. We have a lot of extra plexiglass that showed up in our attic and I was going to use that on the top door, like we did in the coop. I could also probably put a plexiglass window on the side so I can directly see the lamp and the chicks.

 

[Stewarts]

Plexiglass is a good thing to use, makes it easier to watch the chicks for any up and coming problems and just to enjoy them. Ya, rolls of insulation is what we used to. Sounds like you've got it worked out. Good Luck and post some pictures.

 

[shmccarthy]

Thank you, I'll be sure to do that!