GREAT IDEA: Brooder Box Made from Old Dresser!

[greenfamilyfarms]

I found an ad on our local CL for a person using old dressers as brooder boxes. These look really neat! Check it out:

I thought this would be great for those of us (like me) that lack some carpentry skills. You could get an old dresser from a yard sale or flea market pretty cheap and then just modify it. I like the drawers in the bottom for storage.

 

[chickM4st3r(AL)]

thats cool and u can put in the draw the supplies

 

[Swampwood]

Very cool idea! Thanks!

 

[WestKnollAmy]

That is so cool for small amounts of chicks. The 200 I usually have running here would need a big dresser! Awesome idea if there is some type of water proofing on the floor and a few inches up the wall. Like linoleum.
I guess I clean the brooders so much I am always trying to find ways to water proof and be able to disinfect between batches..
Thanks for sharing!

 

[joebryant]

It'd have to be a lot larger dresser for me because I don't see anywhere for the chicks to go to get away from the heat of the heat lamp. They like to cool off a bit, warm up, cool off a bit, warm up, ... They don't stay under the heat all the time.

 

[BeccaOH]

Quote:
Would it work to take out the drawers and lay the dresser down on it's back? Then fashion screen covers and a door over the drawer rails. Set the lamp on the screen cover in one corner. It would be low on the floor, but more space for the many chicks that folks like me usually have.

On this design, I'd modify it to have more of a kick plate to hold litter in when the chicks scratch and when the door is opened.

 

[hencackle]

Love your ingenuity!

 

[joebryant]

Quote:
Would it work to take out the drawers and lay the dresser down on it's back? Then fashion screen covers and a door over the drawer rails. Set the lamp on the screen cover in one corner. It would be low on the floor, but more space for the many chicks that folks like me usually have.

On this design, I'd modify it to have more of a kick plate to hold litter in when the chicks scratch and when the door is opened.


Sounds good to me. That's what I'd do.

 

[JanetSmithery]

Huh. You could probably use one of those TV armoires you can get for a song these days, now that everyone's buying flat screen TVs. It would be bigger than a dresser for sure. My mother's armoire could brood almost as many chicks as a feed trough, easy. The extra height would also be nice for heat control...you could move a lamp up and down on a suspension chain as needed instead of being fixed in position.

 

[joebryant]

I use a watermelon box that I got from the grocery store. It folds up for storage; it's deep, long, and wide. Lots of room. I suspend the heat lamp wire from a board across the top; that way I can raise it as the chicks grow.