DIY brooder for 30 chicks?

[WallyG74]

I use a big cardboard box that my little push lawnmower came in as the first step. When they seem happy and healthy they go to my outside brooder that is attached to the main coop. The lawnmower box is plenty big for 30 chicks.

 

[EEforMe]

Pine shavings, not cedar, I thought?

Yeah, for whatever reason I always say cedar shavings when I mean pine LOL sorry about that

 

[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!

 

[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!

Chicks got moved to outdoor brooder right after 3-week birthday, doing fine. We gave them probiotic water and regular water for first 8 days, not one had pasty butt and we had no losses this time. Yay!

 

[Iluveggers]

Oh yeah, I used puppy pads too!

 

[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.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Better have a cover over it, by 2 weeks old they can fly out!

For the puppy play pen? My boxes have actual lids that close so they stay inside and can't hit the lamps

 

[BigBlueHen53]

For the puppy play pen? My boxes have actual lids that close so they stay inside and can't hit the lamps

Yes, I did mean for the play pen.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

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

 

[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.