Hover Brooder with BSL’s

[Rangergord]

There they are! 26 BSL Red Rock cross pullets. We don’t want to see any white spots on their heads and so far so good.

 

[Rangergord]

10:00PM temperature outside approaching freezing. Coop +6 C Brooder temperature taken with laser thermometer 85-90 F. Most important the chicks are relaxed cheeping happily to see me spread out a bit not huddled or crowding the outside edges. Two sides of the brooder are open at the bottom and two sides are closed atm. Water and feed still available. They seem to have gotten their fill now, they really spent some serious time eating and drinking. I am going to set an alarm for early morning and check them again until I can be sure they are doing just fine.

 

[Rangergord]

Some more construction details, the brooder skirt is made from woven poly feed sack material fixed in place with my favorite tool Duck Tape.

 

[Rangergord]

Fire in the sky! Reflected from above and all sides the heat and light is contained within the brooder.

 

[Rangergord]

Just before the chicks arrived, I covered the dirt floor with rubber matting to prevent ground moisture from wetting the litter. Also want to keep the chickens from digging deeply in the soil and give a definite boundary to clean out to.

 

[Rangergord]

Added some new straw from the loft overhead. I had a foot of straw litter on the dirt floor over winter and was worried that it would freeze solid and be cold. It worked really well, stayed dry and provided insulation from the cold and frozen ground.

 

[Rangergord]

They are doing just fine. I checked in at 4:00AM but I could have stayed in bed. It was snowing and half way freezing out but + 5C in the coop. The laser thermometer has been doing a great job of taking an instant chick level reading of the brooder temp.
The chicks are very friendly and are coming up to the window to meet me .

 

[Rangergord]

The front of the hover brooder is framed in by the cage which might become a permanent part of the coop as an isolation cage. I added the HC on the front as an observation and ventilation port.

Notice the vertical 1x4 boards on either side are fastened by pocket holes and screws. I got a pocket hole jig and screws to build a workbench recently and I really like joining boards on edge in my designs. The special screws and jigs make it quick and easy to to join boards with strong and accurate joint. I will be using it again in some future chick tractor and cold frame projects.

 

[Rangergord]

An incandescent dimmer switch is being used to control the heat output of the brooder lamp. This is a slide control model with a plug and play cord attached. This adds flexibility to the setup. You could use a rotary or slide dimmer switch in an electrical fixture box instead.
The dimmer switch works well as a substitute for raising or lowering the lamp. It allows the 250 watt bulb to be turned down to about 100-125 watts. I measured the temperature of the lamp reflector at 120 F. Less than hot water temperature. So it’s much safer.
It saves electricity. Over 8 weeks a brooder lamp could consume as much as 360 KWh of electricity costing between $36 and 70$ CDN depending on where you live. Notice the chart that came with the dimmer. Dimming your lamp a mere 10 % can double the life of the bulb. Dimmed 50 % a bulb could last 20 times longer. This could mean less worry about the bulb burning out during the night.
I have had to turn the bulb down during the day and turn it up at night, so far I set it at between 50-80 % of full output in these cool temperatures based on how the chicks are dispersed or gathered.