Free crate

[LadyAchee]

Just got 3 free crates from a neighbor. I will be turning one into a new chick brooder. Pretty cool!

Should I use the long one or the more square one for 12 chicks?

 

[cherrynberry]

What are the dimensions? All the boxes look too small for 12 chicks, in my opinion. But its hard to tell the dimensions off of a photo.

 

[PippinTheChicken]

I would attach the square one as a little house, then use the long one as an "outdoor" open space

 

[LadyAchee]

The long one is about 4x1.5 ft. Not sure about the others. The neighbors said I could come get a bigger one so I will do that later if these aren't big enough.

 

[aart]

Should I use the long one or the more square one for 12 chicks?

Neither.
Even the longer one wont hold 12 chicks for very long.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Just got 3 free crates from a neighbor. I will be turning one into a new chick brooder. Pretty cool! Should I use the long one or the more square one for 12 chicks?

I like reusing things. And free is good.

So may questions and possibilities. How old will those chicks be when you take them out? What will your weather be like when you are ready to take them out? Will you be brooding in your climate controlled house or somewhere else? Is your coop ready and do you already have chickens so integration is an issue. You don't need to answer any of these to me, they ae just logistics type things I think you should consider when deciding the details of how to do it.

I don't know how much bigger that other crate is. I'm thinking floor area more than height. I'd suggest getting the larger one and setting that up as your initial brooder. You could add to it as mentioned above either now or if space gets tight add another one to it later. That's a common approach for people that use a large appliance box for a brooder in their garage, if it gets full expand it buy taping in another box.

I would not use one of those little crates by itself initially, it would too quickly be too small. But two or three of them together gives you a lot more room, especially if you get the bigger one.

 

[neo71665]

Might be ok brooding 12 bobwhite chicks

 

[Weeg]

What I'm imagining is your combining them all into one brooder? Maybe this wasn't your original plan but it could work. Maybe if you cut large doors in all the little boxes, and a large door in the big box. Line up the doors and attach the boxes together. Would that work?
None of those small ones will be big enough by themselves. How big is the large one?

 

[3KillerBs]

Chicks in the brooder are said to require 1/2 square foot each for the first 4 weeks, 1 square foot each from 4-8 weeks, and 2 square feet from 8-12 weeks.

I found that after the first week or so they are happy to use all of my big, 4x8 brooder.

This is my experience with a batch of a dozen: https://www.backyardchickens.com/posts/24479134