How does my brooder look?

[PapaChaz]

This is what I'm thinking as far as moving them quickly out of the house and into they're cop / run. I figure I can run an extension cord and hang the red heat lamp, it only gets to about 50 at night and up to the mid 70's in the day. Ive read so much conflicting advice.

Lot of difference in 50 at night and negative 14 though..........

@ Kirghizstan - you can also raise that light up higher away from the brooder to lower the temp as well. You'll want to lower it about 5 degrees each week untill they're feathered out, after that they have built in heat retaining ability....

 

[kar0427]

I never said i would do what everyone else did, I was just confused and wanted to make sure I understood correctly. Thanks for your input

It's easy to get confused with so much information and so many different ideas tossed out. I have a similar set up to yours for 1 or 2 day old chicks; a very large plastic bin with a reptile light that dims to control heat, that sits on a dresser. I like to have any baby animal very visible and in close proximity for a week or so. It's maintained 92-95 in the center with temps ranging down from there to 70 degrees to either end I live in an old farmhouse that can be drafty and cool, so I need the container to be a little more enclosed. They aren't going to bake as long as they can move away from the higher heat, just make sure you test run it long enough to know what the overall temperature is with the light on for an extended period. You'll need more room as they grow, of course, and I'm sure you'll sense when they need to move to a larger area and put together a cardboard or other enclosure at that time.

And remember: there are no stupid questions, there are many different approaches to any given task, and being inexperienced in any venture doesn't make you less than intelligent - just less experienced.

 

[KensingtonHens]

Lot of difference in 50 at night and negative 14 though..........

@ Kirghizstan - you can also raise that light up higher away from the brooder to lower the temp as well. You'll want to lower it about 5 degrees each week untill they're feathered out, after that they have built in heat retaining ability....

Right!! I feel lucky there.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Personally I don’t believe in magic numbers where one specific square footage per chick works for every brooder in the world with every brood of chicks ever hatched. In brooders, chicks, and our management methods there are enough differences that what works for one person does not work for another. I believe in letting your chicks tell you what they need.

I’m a proponent of providing more space than the absolute minimum, whether that is in a coop, run, brooder, in a nest, or on the roost. Chickens may be social animals but they also need their personal space to minimize behavioral problems. With more space you normally don’t have to work as hard either.

My concern with your brooder is that it might get too hot. Too hot is more dangerous that too cool. To me the ideal brooder is one that keeps one area warm enough but allows those that want to be cooler enough room to find that temperature. The ends away from the heat need to cool off so they can find their comfort level. If you put a bunch of humans in a room and set the thermostat on an “average” setting, some people are too warm, some too cool, and some just right. Why? People are different. Chicks are different too. There is no one perfect magic temperature that keeps all chicks happy.

My 3’ x 6’ brooder is in the coop. They go in there straight from the incubator or when they arrive from the post office. Outside my brooder the temperature was in the single digits Fahrenheit a couple of days after my current brood arrived in the mail. The chicks didn’t care, they were not outside the brooder. One end of my brooder was in the 90’s. The far end was below freezing at times. Some water down there froze so I know it was below freezing. The chicks did not go to that end but stayed in the warm end. On days it gets a lot warmer, they stay further away from the heat source. I allow them to self-regulate and they do. If you have your coop ready and you have electricity to it, you can brood directly in there as long as you can keep one area warm enough. The chicks don’t care how deep the snow is outside as long as they are not outside.

You asked “why do so many people show brooding chicks in smaller tubs than what I have”. Even if some people consider them wrong, they can and do work. If you have them in the house your temperatures are pretty stable. You don’t have to worry about a possible daily 30 degree temperature change outside the way I have to. You can fine tune yours and keep the temperature in a safe range. The chicks may not enjoy it as much, but they can survive as long as you don’t cook them. We have different conditions, different concerns, and different management techniques. There is not one magic number that covers us all.

I don’t provide nearly 2 square feet per chick at any time they are in the brooder. I’ve had some at five weeks that were in about ½ a square foot, but that was 28 chicks, mostly pullets, in a 3’ x 5’ brooder. Another time I had 23 chicks, almost all cockerels, in that same brooder. In both cases it was getting pretty crowded at five weeks. They were all full sized, by the way, no bantams. That can make a difference too. Because my brooder was fairly large the square footage was less important. I’m going to use whole numbers and inches to make the math easier. The numbers I’m going to use are not that realistic but I want to illustrate a point, not get into arguments about how much space a chick that grows pretty fast might actually take up at some age. Assume each chick occupies 10 square inches of brooder space and you give each chick 100 square inches total of brooder space. That leaves 90 square inches unoccupied for each chick.

Say you have 4 chicks. They occupy 40 square inches and have 360 square inches unoccupied to explore since you give each chick 100 square inches. You need to fit a feeder and waterer in that free space too. Now say you have 20 chicks. They occupy 200 square inches but have 1800 square inches to explore. Even with the feeder and waterer that’s quite a difference. The more chicks you have the less space you have to give each one to keep them from being crowded. I still recommend giving them plenty of space. I think they are better off.

You need room in the brooder for the feeder and waterer. In a smaller brooder they might take up a higher percentage of the available space. You need room for them to get away from the heat if it gets too hot. Then you need room for them to play. Chick TV is better than any cable channel but they need room to perform. They do grow really fast so that room to play requirement goes up pretty fast.

In your temperatures I can understand you not being comfortable brooding them outside. If you lose power they won’t last long out there. In the house you’d be surprised at how cool they can take it. I have a generator ready to go just in case. I think it helps to have some experience in how tough they really are also.

I don’t remember reading how many chicks you plan to get. You can try them in that brooder as is. It will probably work for a while. Watch them and adjust the temperature to suit. If they spend most of their time hiding behind that waterer or feeder, it is too warm. If they huddle under the heat, they are too cool. When they sleep they normally huddle together in a nice warm spot so don’t confuse that with them being too cool. You may find you need to put up a barrier they can hide behind to get away from the direct heat of that lamp. There is some trial and error involved in all of this.

I also recommend you have a contingency plan ready in case you need more room, which you probably will fairly soon. Some people brood their s in the bathtub in a spare bathroom. Another good one is to get one or two large appliance boxes and tape them together. If I had an attached garage that stayed somewhat warm I’d use that. There are a tremendous number of different things that can work.

As long as you provide the basics of food, clean water, a dry brooder, block a breeze from hitting them, and sufficient but not too much warmth they will do fine, regardless of all the things people tell you that you are doing wrong.

Good luck and welcome to the adventure. It’s a good ride.

 

[jennyg]

T

My local TSC's are getting chicks this week so this first timer had to put together a brooder. THey are going to have to be in for awhile because here in massachusetts it is freezing and 3 feet of snow on the ground. Is there anything you think i need to change here. I'm using a 75 watt bulb that i tested and the inside got to 95degrees. I'm going to put a dimmer on it to lower it as the weeks move one. I will use newspaper for the first week then switch to pine shavings. have the organic chick starter feed ready. If they arrive tomorrow I will probably be buying them so any last minute changes I need to make will be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your help

This is our third time, first time pine shavings, second paper towels w little pine shavings this time paper towels only. So easy clean up. I wouldn't advice using newspaper. Nice setup! We're you able to buy it like this? We use a red heat lamp, a wire dogkennel and a plastic box inside

 

[ChickenLegs13]

That looks more like a chicken oven than a chicken brooder. I use about the same size tote but with a regular 60w house bulb about 6" from the floor in my light. I don't try to heat my whole brooder and have never put a thermometer in a brooder. The chicks go to the cold end to eat

it has a 75watt bulb in there.  I put a thermometer in there and let it sit and only got up to 95 degrees directly below the center of the light. 

with it negative 14 this morning and a few feet of snow on the ground, outside isn't possible

I can see the bottom of your bulb and it's much bigger & hotter than the little 60w house bulb I use. That's why I said what I said.

I hear you on the -14. No way I'd put baby chicks in that kind of cold either. When it gets down to 30 above I threaten to move to South Fla.

I didn't elaborate on my outside wire cage brooder because this thread is about your brooder but mine is 3x5 and houses my last hatch of 40 three week old chicks. That's about 5x the amount of chicks allowed by "they say" but wire cages are a different animal. I put a 12"x12" piece of cardboard in there under my little 60w light for them to stand on, throw a tarp over the cage to keep the wind & rain out, and call it home for the next 4-5 weeks.

The first night outside it was 30* and last week during that cold spell it got down to 25*, yeah there's a big difference between 25* and -14* and I'm just saying what I do; I'm not saying you should do it my way. This all wire cage is 4 foot off the ground so it's NOT warm in there. My point is it doesn't need to be, I know it was cold as heck inside the cage but as long as the chicks had their light to huddle under they were fine. They were huddled tightly, more tightly than I like to see, but they weren't pilling up or cheeping in distress.

Now, at 3 weeks they are almost fully feathered except for a little fuzz on their heads, as compared to my warm weather chicks which take about 5-6 weeks to attain the same amount of feathering. When I untarp the cage during the day, 45* was the high today, and they get cold they fluff up their feathers instead of seeking the light. I will be able to wean them off the light quicker than I do my summer chicks and turn them out into the grower pen sooner.

Another point to consider: I'm raising regular chickens, not meat birds. If I were raising meat birds I'd keep them warmer so that high protein starter is used for growing meat, not feathers and not burning calories to stay warm.

 

[JadedPhoenix]

Quote: Actually, with my flock that I got last year, I put ALL of my chicks in my "brooding pens" with snow on the ground. Put the light on one end with a tarp over the top of that end of the coop and run to keep the heat in and the other end was completely open. In doing so, I was surprised just how quickly the chicks would start laying out in the cold and sunshine. I mean less than a week after I got them. They are now some very hardy chickens.

With the above contraption, I'd be concerned about the plastic getting too warm. When warmed, plastic releases chemicals into the air that aren't healthy for you or your chickens. It doesn't have to actually start melting for it to be harmful.