So my 40 chicks are now 2 weeks old and are testing out their developing wings quite a bit.
I kept finding them sitting on top of the waterers and feeders. So I mention to DH that I needed to make a top for our large cardboard box brooder.
He said "Don't worry, I'll throw some thing together this weekend". Well, he made me a whole new 4' x 6' brooder out of left over material we had around.
He bought 1 sheet of plywood and 4 1 x 4 boards. Everything else was scrap from other projects.
It has two sides with a spot for a slide in divider. Since we ran out of plywood, we currently have cardboard in there. It is working fine.
The floor is 1/4" hardware cloth with cardboard on top. This will make for easy cleaning. We just replace the card board periodically. We can wash down the wire at the end of the broode.
The sides are 1/4" hardware cloth and we currently have cardboard over it until it warms up a bit.
On side has a solid top and the other is 1/4" hardware cloth so we can put the heat lamp on it.
Both sides of the top open. Also the front has hinged doors for side access. We made these solid since everything else is hardware cloth.
I currently have chicks on one side and supplies on the other. Only plan for a change is to convert the solid top to have hardware cloth as well. That way we can shift chicks from one side to the other while we clean.
Once they are big they can have the whole thing. Finally DH made a beginners pearch for the chicks to practice flying up to and roost one. 3 of the chicks already sleep ther.
I hope you all like it. I sure do.
Liz
I kept finding them sitting on top of the waterers and feeders. So I mention to DH that I needed to make a top for our large cardboard box brooder.
He said "Don't worry, I'll throw some thing together this weekend". Well, he made me a whole new 4' x 6' brooder out of left over material we had around.
He bought 1 sheet of plywood and 4 1 x 4 boards. Everything else was scrap from other projects.
It has two sides with a spot for a slide in divider. Since we ran out of plywood, we currently have cardboard in there. It is working fine.
The floor is 1/4" hardware cloth with cardboard on top. This will make for easy cleaning. We just replace the card board periodically. We can wash down the wire at the end of the broode.
The sides are 1/4" hardware cloth and we currently have cardboard over it until it warms up a bit.
On side has a solid top and the other is 1/4" hardware cloth so we can put the heat lamp on it.
Both sides of the top open. Also the front has hinged doors for side access. We made these solid since everything else is hardware cloth.
I currently have chicks on one side and supplies on the other. Only plan for a change is to convert the solid top to have hardware cloth as well. That way we can shift chicks from one side to the other while we clean.
Once they are big they can have the whole thing. Finally DH made a beginners pearch for the chicks to practice flying up to and roost one. 3 of the chicks already sleep ther.
I hope you all like it. I sure do.
Liz
