My New Chick Brooder Coop (**Pics**)

[auto5man]

This coop building story started Good Friday....for some reason my wife suggested that we go to Tractor Supply to "look at chicks". She even called the TSC to see if they had any chicks in stock. I was a bit taken aback, as usually SHE is the one offering resistance to adding more chickens to our flock. So I was surprised, but happy nonetheless, as I always like to see ANYTHING that has to do with chickens. As we were making the 30 minute drive out to our local TSC, I thought to myself that this was a bad sight-seeing idea to have our 7 and 10yr old girls along, who are suckers for chicks and as as soon as they saw some....it was gonna be all over,,, resistance would be futile! So we got there and the girls were in heaven holding chicks and BEGGING to get some! They had Buff Orpingtons (we have two) and AmberLinks, which I had never heard of, and so I was intrigued. I quickly looked some pictures up online on the handy i-phone...and liked what I saw. Wifey did too and surprised me again, saying..."OK, lets pick out six". YAAAAAYYYYYYYY, the girls were literally jumping up and down with excitement. So we picked out six Amberlinks and brought them home. We settled them in to the handy rubbermaid which we had used to raise our current flock of layers...


Here's a chick close-up...sorry its blurry but it is a cellphone pic...



So you are saying "please tell me his rubbermaid is not the 'New Brooder Coop' he posted about!" No, its not. Here's what happened...the next day I went to buy seeds for my garden at the farm supply store, and THEY HAD CHICKS TOO! Plus, they had Americauna's (or maybe EE's but the sign said Americaunas) advertised as blue-egg layers and I want blue eggs.....yep, you guessed it I HAD to buy two! They were within a day or so in age of my six amber links so I thought they would no doubt get along famously....and after an initial intense stare-down...they did (it was quite comical, actually). After about a week (CHICKS GROW FAST), we realized that the rubbermaid just wasn't roomy enough. Which brings me to the point of this thread....it was time to build a bigger brooder! This will have to suffice as a teaser...its bedtime. I will post pics of my new home-built brooder soon...stay tuned.

 

[auto5man]

Okay...construction details. I didn't take a lot of pics of the process because I was in a zone, but the construction was pretty straightforward. I did not work from a plan, just rough dimensions, which in this case was 2ft x 4ft. As with all my coops I try to build as cheaply as possible using mostly re-cycled and re-purposed materials. The chicken wire I already had from another project, the 1x4's and 1x2's were part of a lot of wood I bought from Lowe's...a large pile of reject wood for a pittance (my pile had a big variety of dimensional lumber). The floor is OSB that I found 'curb-scrounging' for free. So I started with a base of 1x4's and OSB, then used 1x2's in the corners for the uprights and again for the top framing. Chicken wire is safe for this application b/c this will mostly be a brooder meant for inside the house. After the chicks feather out and are ready to move outside, I have a larger, more secure brooder coop on the back porch (I will document that build some other time, it is still in progress) for them to graduate to.

 

[auto5man]

The next two progress pics are much farther along in the building process. The lid was constructed and hinged in the back, and the chicken wire stapled on stretching it tight as I stapled. I plan to neaten things up by adding a 1x2 trim strip to cover up the chicken wire edges. I started with a 1x4 for the lid but ripped it down...wanted the bottom/top parts to match as it just seems more pleasing to my eye. A buddy of mine, and fellow chicken enthusiast, suggested closing in the back and sides instead of using chicken wire to keep the bedding more contained. Boy, was he ever right and I'm glad I followed his advice. The chicks are very active scratchers (you could easily say it appears to be their FAVORITE activity) and every day there are bits of bedding thrown out through the wire, but only in the front.

The back and sides are where I deviated a bit from using all scrounged materials. I was going to use OSB b/c it was free and on-hand, but I got the idea to use tongue and groove pine boards for several reasons. Its cheap (10 bucks from Lowe's was enough for this project. they come in a pack of 6 boards, each board is 8 ft long solid pine), its MUCH lighter than OSB and kept the overall weight down, easy to work with, and looks great. The first pic shows the sides done, the second pic is of the completed back.

 

[auto5man]

Here are the finished photos, more or less. Chicken wire on the front and then trim pieces added to cover up the wire edge and add strength. I would liked to have taken a little more time sanding and finishing, but the chicks were ready for their new home!

 

[auto5man]

a look inside...

 

[auto5man]

The chicks LOVE their new home. The open front makes it a lot more fun and interactive, too. They are very curious and love looking out, watching all their antics is sorta like watching T.V., Pepper thinks so too!

 

[fiddlebanshee]

Please tell me that the heatlamp is not just secured by the clamp. There's been too many stories of those clamps failing and fires started and chicks perished to disregard.

Nice job on the brooder. I have a similar design but made the front to open in stead of the top in order for the chicks not to be spooked every time I reached in. Both should work though.

 

[auto5man]

Please tell me that the heatlamp is not just secured by the clamp. There's been too many stories of those clamps failing and fires started and chicks perished to disregard.

Nice job on the brooder. I have a similar design but made the front to open in stead of the top in order for the chicks not to be spooked every time I reached in. Both should work though.

I have a sheet rock screw on there that you can't see, but now you've made me paranoid, I think I will add a zip-tie...thanks for the suggestion. In hindsight, I think doors on the front WOULD work better...my daughters handle the chicks daily and doors would be much easier for them to reach inside.

 

[nikka77]

I like this so much. Thanks for all the pictures. How did you mount the roosting bar in the side?

 

[felys]

a look inside...

This looks good.