Had to put an addition on the brooder...so funny

[bangor777]

So, I still have these 11 'packing peanuts' that came with my 8 bantam silkie chicks. I'm using a converted rubbermaid brooder and it just isn't big enough. I have ads placed but no serious takers on the boys. ONe person said they wanted them and never showed up. Anyway, it is quite crowded in there, and i only need to house them for another week or two until my big girls go out to the coop, then I'll use their brooder. My sweet husband assembled a packing box , cut a whole in the side of the rubbermaid and of the box and connected the two with a coffee can on its side. Now their food and water is in one side and the heat lamp shines down on the original side.

I was so worried that they wouldn't know to go back and forth, but I was wrong. They love to run back and forth in the habitrail like tube...cracks me up. They seem quite overjoyed with their new two room home. The coffee can tube is always full of chicks heading in one direction or the other. Quite humorous.

Thanks for reading, thought I'd share.

 

[CritterHill]

That's great! I love the visual of them running back and forth through the tunnel!

I have my 11 three week old polish chicks in a watermelon box, but I am afraid that in a couple weeks it will start to get crowded in there!

I already have plans to tape another large box on this weekend and cut out the dividing walls and hope that holds them for another couple weeks!

We may end up with a habitrail of boxes taped together stretching from the dining room to the living room. Sounds like you are already half way there!

 

[swiftfoot]

i love the idea of connecting boxes together i once used a pvc pipe to connect a box for my quail

 

[Guitartists]

That's funny! I can only imagine the ruckous! Our first hatched loves to zip across the brooder, even if it means stepping on top of all the other chicks. I imagine he would love something like what you have!

 

[Sugar Sand Farm]

We had to separate ours as well. Went to Babcock furniture and got a dryer box and cut in lengthwise. Works very well. I have three of them in my spare bedroom but your idea sounds cute. Never realized how hard it would be to get big boxes. seems the city here goes around collecting from businesses and taking them to the recycle center. Who would guess.

 

[Cetawin]

Fabulous idea! I would love to see them running through the coffee can...hehehe

 

[pixiechic]

Love the coffee can connector idea -- great!

 

[LynneP]

We have a divider in our brooder, too, it keeps the bedding mostly on one side and the food/water on the other. I started with everything together and left a trail of crumbles to the new side when I moved the feeder/waterer. They love it! They swarm from one side to the other- very smart in the first days, I was surpsied and pleased about that!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=7693-A_Brooder

 

[bangor777]

Nice looking brooder...good job. I have to laugh because mine looks more like a shanty....cardboard, rubbermaid, graffiti (kids love to draw on the cardboard side, they're scrawled all the chick's names). I just won't show my chicks how "the other half lives" and they'll never know.