DIY brooder for 30 chicks?

[NikksChicks]

Hi all!

We are nearly finished constructing the 12x8 coop, looking towards completing a 30x20 run, and feel like it’s a good time to think about ordering chicks! We are planning on 30 chicks (assuming some casualties will occur) and I’m trying to find DIY solutions for a brooder (or 2) that will get our chicks from day-old to coop-ready in the next several weeks.

Anyone have ideas, plans, pics for how they did it with about 20-30 chicks?

Thanks in advance!

 

[NatJ]

We are nearly finished constructing the 12x8 coop, looking towards completing a 30x20 run, and feel like it’s a good time to think about ordering chicks! We are planning on 30 chicks (assuming some casualties will occur) and I’m trying to find DIY solutions for a brooder (or 2) that will get our chicks from day-old to coop-ready in the next several weeks.

Anyone have ideas, plans, pics for how they did it with about 20-30 chicks?

Thanks in advance!

You could brood them right in the coop. For this many chicks, it would probably be easier than brooding them in your house or garage.

Set up a heat lamp near one corner, get the temperature right, and tape some pieces of cardboard together to make barrier for the first few days so they cannot go more than about 4 feet away from the lamp. You won't need the barrier for long-- by the time they're a week old, or maybe even less, they can be allowed to run all around in the coop. A nice thing about a heat lamp is that the light attracts them back, so they are less likely to get lost in the first few days.

Or you could do the same thing, but with a brooder plate, as some people are recommending.

I've also brooded about that many chicks in a garage. On the concrete floor, I layered a tarp, a layer of cardboard, and a layer of paper towels (tarp protects the floor, cardboard protects the tarp and is less slippery, paper towel gives even better traction.) I added other bedding a day or two later. I used a combination of dog kennel panels, hardware cloth, and pieces of cardboard to make an enclosure 4 by 7 feet. I hung a heat lamp at one end, so they had plenty of space to get away from the heat if needed. (In cold weather, I would use 2 heat lamps near each other, in case one quits working. That still leaves a big cool area in the rest of the pen.)

I've only used heat lamps, not brooder plates (yes, of course you need to be careful of fire safety with a heat lamp.) My impression is that heat lamps work better for large numbers of chicks in large spaces, and that brooder plates work better for smaller numbers of chicks in smaller spaces. In a small space, a heat lamp can overheat the chicks because they don't have enough room to get away from it. But with 30 chicks, you will need a fairly big space anyway.

 

[Ridgerunner]

This is a shot of my 3' x 6' brooder built into my 8' x 12' coop. A brooder this size should handle 30 chicks until they are 5 weeks old. By that time they can probably handle the temperatures you'll see but I'm not sure where you are located. If you are going to keep them in your brooder longer than 5 weeks I'd go a bit bigger.

I put chicks in here straight from the incubator or post office, whether it is below freezing in winter or in the middle of summer. The most I've done is 28 chicks. I keep one end toasty but let the far end cool off as it will. In winter I sometimes have ice on the cool end. To me the biggest challenge in brooding outside is the temperature swings. I've seen it go from below freezing to in the 70's F in 36 hours. As long as they have a warm enough spot in the coolest temperatures and a cool enough spot in the warmest temperatures they can handle that themselves, even straight from the incubator. The amount of plastic I wrap it in depends on how cold I expect it to get.

If you use a heat plate check to see how many it will handle. 30 chicks would be a lot for some of them. If you use a heat lamp, throw that clamp away that comes with it so you are not tempted to use it. Secure it in place with chain or wire so it can't fall. Do not use string or plastic that can burn or melt, use wire or chain. That gets rid of the worst of the fire worries. Don't count on any of them dying, I almost never lose one. My average loss is around one in every hundred chicks.

30 chicks is a lot to raise in your house. You do need a certain sized brooder. Maybe give them your spare bathroom and plan on some serious cleaning afterwards. Tape plastic around the bottom of the walls to keep them from staining it and requiring repainting.

If you have an attached garage or a big basement maybe you can rig a big brooder in it. Maybe tape two or three appliance boxes together to make a big brooder.

If you have electricity to your coop I'd give a lot of thought to using that coop. If not, well, good luck.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I actually made brooding boxes. But if you're looking for something easier, some people use those puppy play pens

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Here are our chicks today with Gracie on guard. This is their first day out in the sunshine. Note how Gracie has turned her back to them and is looking outward so she can keep an eye out for danger, and how happy she looks in her role as guardian. She had spent about half an hour looking over them and getting acquainted with them first.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

We cut the tops open on these plastic bin lids and used duct tape and plastic mesh to keep them from flying out.

 

[blackdog043]

If your coop is finished and secure when you get them, I would raise them in there. Set up some cardboard to contain them in a small area for the first week, then expand that as they grow, until you release them to the whole coop. Make the space big enough, so they have a warm and cool side. If you use a heat lamp, make sure you secure it 3 different ways, to keep it from falling and lighting your coop on fire.

 

[NikksChicks]

Thank you all, again, so much! I ended up building a cardboard coop out of our (4 year old ) moving boxes. We ordered 30 chicks from Ideal (10 varieties, 3 each) last Wednesday and 29 alive ones arrived Friday morning. After a few losses, we’re down to 25 total now. Ideal was fantastic at reimbursement for the 5 we lost within 48 hours. The 25 left are going strong and getting bigger every minute . We have the coop nearly finished (just need to build shutters for the newly made windows) and a run access door. This has been a fun adventure so far, minus the baby chick losses.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

We used puppy pee pads, I have read that newspaper can get slick and cause spraddle leg. We also used big plastic bins, cut big openings in the lids and covered the openings with plastic mesh. We put the bins in a closet we took the doors off of and hung a heat lamp from the clothes rod, perfectly secure. Pulled the bins out each week a little bit so it wouldn't be so warm. Actually had two lamps, one with a white bulb for days and the other with a red bulb for night. Worked great. Ten chicks to a tub, two tubs.

To clean each evening we removed chicks to a cardboard box, changed the pee pad, changed feed and waterer, returned chicks to tub. Took less than ten minutes per tub. Oh, change to red lamp and let chicks settle first. Easier to handle that way. Good luck!

 

[miles2go480]

Hi all!

We are nearly finished constructing the 12x8 coop, looking towards completing a 30x20 run, and feel like it’s a good time to think about ordering chicks! We are planning on 30 chicks (assuming some casualties will occur) and I’m trying to find DIY solutions for a brooder (or 2) that will get our chicks from day-old to coop-ready in the next several weeks.

Anyone have ideas, plans, pics for how they did it with about 20-30 chicks?

Thanks in advance!

I did 25 chicks in a puppy play pen. Worked great. Started with puppy pads, then pine shavings, then the floor of the hen house in sand.