Easy to clean brooder!

Marianne67410

Hatching
11 Years
Mar 6, 2008
9
0
7
My husband and grandson are currently building a larger brooder for our 8 new girls. It's 2' x 2' x 5' long. It's standard 1x2 and luan construction with hardware cloth and a 2 section hinged top.

My 12 yr. old grandson came up with the idea of building the floor area up and putting a large 4" deep aluminum pan at one end. The top of the pan with a piece of the luan is the same height as the rest of the brooder floor.

When the whole thing is done, I will be able to lift one top, and scoot the pine shavings/poo towards the end that has the poo pan. Through the other side of the top, I can lift up the smaller section of flooring over the pan and scoot all of the shavings into the aluminum pan. It will then be pretty easy to pick up the poo pan and take it to the compost pile.

The floor of the brooder is luan wrapped with some thick plastic for easy cleaning. Ditto with the luan part over the poo pan.

Husband said that he could build it so I can slide a divider in there so I can keep the girls on one side while I'm working on the other.

I hope this makes some sense! Hopefully we can get a picture or two to post soon.

(It's embarassing how much I like these chicks....a friend asked if I was litter box training them yet.)
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my brooder starts from a cardboard box, then to a plastic container, with dog gate lid, the outside to a rabbit cage with very small wire wholes covered in hay ,shavings" pine"and a heat lamp, then ground pen, then yard
 
Luan (sp?) is fairly thin plywood-type wood, maybe 1/8" or so, that comes in 4'x8' sheets. Besides what is listed on Kaneke's post, it's also called 'door skin' in our neck of the woods.
Hubby put a 1x2 support lengthwise under the larger luan floor to help support it.
We currently have the chicks in a plastic tub, but it might take longer than we thought before we can get a coop built outside, so he made this to buy us some extra time. It's light enough that we can carry it outside to the shop if/when it ever starts to warm up around here.
We talked about putting it out in the shop (an old semi-converted milk barn), but since it's unheated, I knew I'd constantly be worrying about the girls. It's only 11 degrees right now....

Today we'll get some heavy plastic over some of the hardware cloth and then figure out what we need for enough heat. I read on here somewhere that someone put a cardboard box in their big brooder just in case the chicks needed to feel a little more secure. I think I'll tape a small one in the corner...yes, I admit that I'm a little OCD about this.
I think I'll cut up a gallon milk jug for a pooper scooper/shovel....need to rig it on a long handle.
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