My Brooder

[Erkenstein]

Hi everyone!

I wanted to post some information about my brooder in case it might help someone. It can be used for any birds, but I specifically designed it for coturnix quail.

It is 4ft x 3ft x 2ft. The walls are made with a single sheet of OSB cut to 4x3, 4x3, 3x2, and 3x2. The corner and base frame is made of 2x2s. The main framing stops a few inches off ground level to allow for a waste tray, and there is additional framing at ground level that supports the waste tray.

The waste tray is made of a sheet of plywood with 1x2s around the edges to keep it rigid. I coated it with polyurethane to make it more water resistant. I put a piece of OSB on the end of the tray so that when the tray is in place there is no draft.

The wire is 1/2 inch hardware cloth and is on the underside of the framing (this is important as you'll see).

I mounted a stand on the side of the brooder for my lamp. I raise the lamp as the weeks go by.

I put 1x2s up the sides in the middle of the brooder. I attach a piece of plywood as a divider when I need to. It is useful for raising different groups of birds and also for moving birds from one side to another during weigh-ins and health checks.

I built frames with 1/4 inch hardware cloth that fit into the bottom when the quail are just hatched. This is why the 1/2 inch cloth is on the bottom of the framing. Once the quail are big enough, I remove the frames and move them onto the 1/2 inch wire, which allows waste to fall easier.

I built a lid that I put on at about 1.5 weeks when the birds start to feather out and flap.

 

[Hungarianquail]

Very nice! I love it!

 

[mdees88]

I was just thinking about starting on thread on my brooder design...

Very nice setup!!! I built one almost exactly like that.

I like keeping them on wire because it is a much cleaner environment for them. But since I brood mine inside my house the smell is my biggest concern. I've noticed with the wire floor the smell is just as bad and possibly a little bit worse than keeping them on shavings. Once the poop falls through it just piles up and doesnt get turned into the shavings. I do like the removable poop tray and I incorporated one into my design also. If you empty the tray every day you can kept the smell to a minimum.

After brooding some of mine on wire I came to the conclusion that adding a layer of shavings each day to my tote brooder was easy enough and kept the smell down well, so I'm using it instead.

If I was brooding in my shop or garage I would use the wire floor brooder without a doubt.

 

[Acre4Me]

Very Nice! I like that it can be divided, and has 2 separate lids.

We did something similar, with 6'x3' brooder. We used a solid floor with pine shavings, and it worked out well for our chicken chicks. When we hatched and brooded quail, we used a large cardboard appliance box and it was inside. Basically you need to get the chicks out of the house by 2 weeks of age....they are so dusty (both quail and chickens), so having a box that is secure and well made for your garage is a very good decision!

The wire floor you may or may not come to love....time will tell, but having it already there gives you that option. bird poop stinks! Our quail have mesh bottoms to their cages, with paper lined poop trays. We find that adding some natural clay (fragrance-free) kitty litter to the poop tray helps with the smell to some extent, and it is pretty cheap to purchase at Wal-Mart. When your quail are very small in their first week, you may find you have to line the mesh with something to give their tiny feet a break from the wire (or to keep their tiny feet fro going through the mesh), so you could use paper towels, or buy a 100 pack of "puppy pee pads" from Wal-Mart or similar...they are absorbant, and fairly cheap, providing a good foothold for the chicks so they do not get splay leg. Do not use newspaper as it is too slick for the baby quail and will likely cause them to have splay leg.

Here is the solid bottom one we made. The "V" shape roost holders make it easy to adjust roost sizes as birds get a bit bigger or to remove the roost bars. Of course, quail do not roost so that is not needed for them. Two additions/changes I would make to mine include a divider, and a way to easily hang a "barrier" on the sides of the lid when they are opened - chicks will fly out when a bit older, and they are hard to catch.

 

[Erkenstein]

Great design! I use paper towels for the babies for the first several days and then gradually graduate them to the 1/4 inch wire. I line my waste tray with newspaper or pine shavings to help keep it tidy. I sometimes use pine shavings on top of the wire and then they work their way down into the waste tray as well.

My design doesn't actually have two separate lids like yours, so that's one of the weaknesses with it. What looks like two lids is the 1/4 inch mesh trays that fit into the bottom. It's a bit cumbersome to try to work on one end of the brooder without opening the whole thing.