My chicks are due to hatch tomorrow and I've done all the preparations. My brooder is 95 degrees F, and towards the opposite side it drops to about 80. My question is, is the brooder big enough and is the placement of food and stuff correct. also, I have the pine wood stuff but I'm gonna keep the paper towels on for a few days.
How many chicks are we talking about? The brooder looks awfully small to me, and even 80 degrees is still pretty darn warm. I'd get a second box, tape it beside the first, and cut a chick door between them. Leave the heat lamp where it is, put the feed and water in the cool box. That way you know they have plenty of space to get away from each other, and can easily self regulate if they need to warm up or not.
Hard to tell when we don't know the size of the brooder, how many chicks, or how long you are planning on keeping them in there. The placement of everything looks great and they will like choosing the heat setting they want. I am assuming that is a gallon water jug? (for judging size) If so I would put up to 15 in there for one week, 6 for 3 weeks, and it would be to small for longer as they grow fast after that. You want them fully feathered before they go out to the coop. The good thing is just about anything can be a brooder and if you need more room walmart sells moving boxes pretty cheap. I use those for broody pens in the house so I can just add another box for more room. You might also want to consider something like bird netting or a screen for the top because they learn to fly quickly (as early as 4 days).
