Large Scale Homemade Brooding

[DellaMyDarling]

These will be our first chickens, so we have more flexibility I suppose. I'll probably do this big order, then a medium order late summer, then next year begin a real rotation of 1/3 chicks to 2/3 older birds. Hoping eventually we'll get some good roos to offer sustainability for the flock numbers. We're doing meat and egg birds, that's why my numbers are so high

 

[AlleysChicks]

If you are doing a short term meat bird like a Cornish cross, then I would brood those separately. They grow super fast and will eat up all the food quick.

 

[DellaMyDarling]

We are doing dual purpose Heritage birds. The research I did even steered me away from Free Rangers. I decided breeds such as CornishX were not in line with what we really desired out of the experience.

So my other worry is...fire. Fire in the henhouse.
Certain materials are much more, uh, combustible? Dry hay, cardboard, etc. I think I like the idea of penning off part of the large coop. Obviously I'll have heat lamps for a while, but should I also have another heat source such as a space heater (outside the penned off area)? This is where fire enters my mind, we will have extension cords running from the barn for the lamps as is. The plan is to build the walls with insulation. Not sure we'll insulate the floor but I can fill the penned area pretty deeply with whatever ground cover we'll use.
I am in New England, we CAN get snow third week of April. It CAN get down to freezing temps that late here.
Should they be in smaller containers, like the totes, inside the house for the first two weeks maybe?

 

[Harmony Fowl]

Two weeks may be longer than you want them in the house with that many. I don’t think starting them in the house to make sure they survive their travel is a bad idea, but I think you’ll find they pass that super vulnerable fluffy chick stage rather quickly. By the end of a week, you’ll start seeing feathers. I put two week old chicks outside in the coop with heat in December. They probably could have gone sooner.

As for the heater in the coop, I wouldn’t. I did that, too, and it kept shutting off because it got so dusty and dirty it was a fire hazard. The heater had a mechanism to detect overheating, it did overheat and thankfully shut off. I stopped using it once I realize what was going on. It wasn’t safe, and that was a safe sort of heater, with that turnoff feature. Chicks are very, very dusty.

I had a heat plate for those December chicks. To help retain heat, I put it underneath a cardboard box with one side cut out so the chicks could enter but the other three sides and the top would hopefully trap heat. The chicks used it, I don’t know how necessary that was, but much safer than the heater in the coop.

My chickens also turned over the heater in the coop, despite my best security measures. Thank goodness it had a turnoff feature for that, too.

 

[lazy gardener]

Totes are just easy bake brooders.
They're never big enough and the idea of setting up several does sound expensive.

Thoroughly agreed. Heat lamp + plastic tote = recipe for disaster. Not to mention the expense in equipment, electricity, and increased fire risk.

Save your money. Call any appliance store, and ask to be connected to their warehouse manager. You can then pick up as many appliance boxes as you need. To get that number of chicks started, I'd recommend that you get 2 boxes, and hook them together with zip ties. That will give you up to 36 s.f. Even that amount of space will be sub optimal. Chicks double their size every 2 weeks. By the time they are 2 - 3 weeks old, they should have a minimum of 2 s.f./bird.

Do you have a coop ready for them? If so, brood them in the coop. If you don't yet have coop space of 4 s.f./bird available for them, you have a pending disaster on your hands.

Last season, I brooded 48 chicks in a grow out coop in April using 2 Sunbeam XPress XL heating pads and the Mother Heating Pad brooding system. It's imperative that any heating pad you use with this system have the bypass switch for the 2 hour auto shut off feature. MHP system is much more natural, decreases behavioral issues, allows the chicks to heat themselves as needed, while maintaining the entire brooder space at ambient temperatures. For me, in April, temps vary from 20* - 60*. The chicks weaned themselves off heat by the time they were 4 - 5 weeks old.

Check @Blooie 's profile for her article and thread that cover the MHP method.

 

[Honey Meadows]

Idk where you should brrod them but I'd skip the whole tote idea.
Totes are just easy bake brooders.
They're never big enough and the idea of setting up several does sound expensive.
I build 4'x 8' plywood boxes and use as brooders.
Even that size won't hold 45 chicks for more then about 3 weeks.

What's your setup for when they graduate from the 3 week brooder? That's my missing link I need.

 

[Audialogical]

Just wanted to put in my two cents, I just did 15 chics in an extra large tote and they were outside in my small coop and six x four run before three weeks old because they outgrew it. They have been out there for four nights now and without heat but I’m in Vegas so it doesn’t get below 75 at night and right now they are so crammed in there it’s warm so I have no comments on your heat situation.

 

[NatJ]

What's your setup for when they graduate from the 3 week brooder? That's my missing link I need.

That poster said a certain size would hold a certain number of chicks for 3 weeks. After that, I think the only issue is space: they need more room.

You can provide more space by increasing the brooder size, or removing some chicks (sell, give away, cull, put in another brooder, etc.), or moving them all out to the coop, or any other method that provides more space per chick. Whether they still need heat at 3 weeks will depend on what temperatures you have at the time, so keep that in mind when planning how to un-crowd them.

If you start with fewer chicks or a larger brooder, they won't run out of space as soon. By the time they are about 8 weeks old, you should provide the full amount of space that adult chickens would need. Giving them that much space sooner is fine too.

 

[Honey Meadows]

Just wanted to put in my two cents, I just did 15 chics in an extra large tote and they were outside in my small coop and six x four run before three weeks old because they outgrew it. They have been out there for four nights now and without heat but I’m in Vegas so it doesn’t get below 75 at night and right now they are so crammed in there it’s warm so I have no comments on your heat situation.

Thanks yea, we get cold winter weather so I don't even think it's going to be possible for me to do chicks through Winter because I have no electric in my barn. womp wommmmmp lol

 

[Audialogical]

Yeah I thinK I wouldn’t want to use a tote again unless it was maybe half that many they get crowded and start pecking each other.