Is a cardboard box a good brooder?

Sounds like you have everything you need....Besides the food of course. The cardboard box should work just fine I have a friend that has raised baby chicks twice now and thats what she uses. I have 13 4week olds and have used pine shaving since I have gotton them, They work really good. I used a 2x3 foot plastic tote for my brooder cage up till they were 3 weeks old just because I had it and it wasn't being used for anything else....GOOD LUCK

 

You might want to have a few bricks handy to raise the feeder and waterer off the floor after a few days. Helps keep the shavings out of them. I am in the middle of raising 50+ babies in various types of brooders and the cardboard boxes are my favorite.

 

I avoided pine shavings for a while since the chicks can "paste up" if they eat too many of them. I did newspaper the first week, then some old rags over the newspaper (and an old shirt once) from then on so they had some traction and did't get leg problems. I just threw the stuff out when it got dirty.

We did a large cardboard box and it worked well, but if I did it again, I'd do a clear container so they could see me walking up to them and maybe become tame a little faster.

We have cats who were in separate rooms, but for safety, I covered the box with a dog gate (that fits in a car) that we were not using. It saved the chicks at least once.