Chick math, how big should brooder be?

[Peeperscreepers]

Duluthralphie , that is some nice chicken housing. I can see how chickens get out of hand. I think I've already caught the iwantthemall fever it's not so much the coop I'm worried about but the brooder eventually getting to small. The coop is almost finished and fencing will be put up tomorrow. I still need to figure out if there is some kind of paint or something I can use to cover the inside to keep the wood protected and easy to clean. I'll probably just use some outdoor paint for the outside and make it look cute. Maybe if you let your wife make your new coop look "cute" she may let you build anouther. They should have ample room there. I will get pic when it stops raining so hard. I did grow up on a farm but it was mostly cows and a few goats horses and pigs I spent time with. Chickens are entirely different creatures. There were chickens sometimes but they were for meat so I didnt spend alot of time with them and there deffinatley wasent any raising chicks inside going on and I was a kid last time they were on the farm.
lazy gardener , thanks that's what I was looking for. I am giving them organic chick starter/grower, I keep reading about making sure the feed has the right kind of protein. But what is the right kind? I kinda worry about that. I would like to find a feed store with more options than what I'm working with now. I have already started weaning them off the light. I have gave them a lighted side and a unlighted side along with raising the lamp once so far. I hope this is how I am supposed to go about it?
Hoppyfrood , better now than at the last min is best huh? I just don't want to look in the brooder one day and figure out I have to do something now. I'd rather have it all planned.
I think I'm just over thinking this, I am a worrier
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[duluthralphie]

D
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[HoopyFrood]

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Hoppyfrood , better now than at the last min is best huh? I just don't want to look in the brooder one day and figure out I have to do something now. I'd rather have it all planned.
I think I'm just over thinking this, I am a worrier

I think we were making minor tweaks nearly every single day for the first 3 or 4 weeks - and sometimes major ones, as I already mentioned. They grow crazy fast and will keep you on your toes! Enjoy it, they'll be teenagers before you know it

As far as your brooder temperatures go, just watch them and respond to that. You should always have a heat gradient (warm end and cool end) like you're doing. You know there's too much heat on the warm end when they stop spending time there. I think by 2 or 3 weeks ours didn't even have supplemental heat during the day. It does get cool at night so I had a ceramic infrared heater going at night up until they were probably around 8 weeks old, but I may have stopped using it earlier. One night the woke us up complaining about the heat, so we switched it off and never used it again after that. I didn't have the coop ready for them to sleep in until the day before their 10th week birthday. This was in our summer and I think overnight lows were typically in the 50s (F).