My new brooder finally finished and filled with chicks!

[kristenm1975]

I seem to have spent the last two weeks working on this thing, but it's finally finished and this morning I put the two week old chicks into it. It's 5 feet by 3 feet and 3 feet tall, so it's needing 3 heat lamps right now to get it up to temperature for them. I think it needed more insulation but I wasn't sure how to do that and not invest a ton more cash into it. I kind of goofed and bought 7 1x6x10's cut in half to make the sides before I realized that two sheets of plywood at $6.15 each would have made a better job of it and cost about $50 less than the long ones. Doh!

So now I'll see if I can post some pics!

 

[Autumn Mama]

Fabulous construction and nice and roomy!

I notice that the chicks are all standing on the wood...did you think of adding pine shavings/litter of some kind? It might be kinder to those soft, young feet?

 

[kristenm1975]

Thanks Autumn Mama! I had some assistance with the construction, since I usually tend to want to get things done quick and free. Translate: hammer, hammer, shrug.

My DBF kept looking out the window and shaking his head, and finally took me to Home Depot and we did it up right. Fun!

It's certainly a debate as to what kind of floor is best suited to this age. I went with the wire as these chicks were from the feed store and were not vaccinated, so the chance of them getting all the chicky nasties was much higher if they were on pine shavings etc.

I did keep them on the pine shavings for the first two weeks, just to give their little feet time to grow large enough that they wouldn't be as likely to get caught in the wire etc. I put the strips of wood down under the heat lamps so that if they crowd up under there that they won't hurt each other on the wire. Gives their little feet a break but still preserves much of the value of the wire. That's the idea, anyway!

Thanks again!