My Chicks are coming home today...brooder question!

[MN Chicken]

I have 4 2 week old chicks in a home made brooder (45 gallon rubbermaid...high tech, I know). I had been planning on putting them all together since my mini flock was so docile. Yesterday though, my EE started acting like a crazy bird. He runs full speed at any bird that is on my arm roosting and tries to karate kick them off...or pecking them until they get away from me.

So...now I think it is unsafe to put the new little ones in with this motley cru. How can I partition off the bucket for a week or so? Is it better to use some kind of wire so they can still see the new babies? I plan on putting the heat source right over my partition, pointed more toward the new chicks. My first set of chicks were almost a week old when I got them, do I need to grind the crumble for the new babies? Last question, should I put paper towel in the baby side, or will they be fine on the aspen shavings?

Thanks a bunch oh wise chicken gurus!

So excited for my babies...going to try to get some new breeds!

 

[Celtic Hill]

I split our Brooder with a pice of cardbord and duck tape. You could do that, and even cut a window and tape something wire like over it so they can see through!


Or you could take two pices of cardboard of the same shape and cut them so they fit in the brooder, then cut out the inside to create a window, then "sandwich" a pice of hardware cloth inbetween, tape the edges so it dosn't open. Does that make sense?

 

[easttxchick]

I would use some kind of wire/screen as a partition so they can get used to each other.
No need to grind the chick start-they can eat it just fine.
I would use paper towel for the babies for a week or so just so they can figure out what their food is and not snack on the shavings.
Congratulations on your new babies and enjoy them!

 

[trilyn]

Great suggestions and I'm just going to add this, if you can get something larger for a brooder get it. You can even go to an appliance store for their fridge boxes and use one of those, just line the bottom with plastic, ie a tarp or something and dump the shavings on top of that. Then you can split it in the middle with some chicken wire or whatnot. My point is, the larger the brooder the better. It just is. They have more room to move and are much happier, just my honest opinion.

 

[MN Chicken]

Thanks for all of the great suggestions! I am going to see if my mom has an x-pen available (she breeds and shows dogs). I can do the x-pen pool combo then. I have fliers on my hands, do I need to use a hardware cloth top with a 4 tall foot x-pen? If I use the pool/pen thing, I do have a small animal cage that I could use for the babies in the pen.

This set up is in my basement, so I want to make sure the shavings are as contained as possible.

 

[easttxchick]

In my opinion, it is never a mistake to cover a pen.

 

[MN Chicken]

That is what I thought

My polish thinks it is actually going to go somewhere. I have the bin covered right now.