Need brooder ideas for housing 6 meat birds.....

[smchickfarm]

so I'm in a similar situation and this is what I did: this is my first time raising chickens of any type, and my husband wasn't crazy about the idea... so the agreement was we would start with meat birds due to their short life span and not put in any permanent structures.

For a brooder I am using a 3ft high dog exercise pen. I put a tarp underneath it and wrapped up the sides, threw some shavings in. When they were really little they could escape out but the tarp kept everyone in place. They are now 3.5 weeks old and the 16 sq foot pen is getting too small for the 12 birds.
For their outdoor home (which they'll be moving to this weekend), I am temporarily re-purposing my dog run. Its 10ftx5ft with a shade cover and paver block floor. I am going to run some poultry netting around the inside because I'm afraid that some of the DP cockerels can escape.

For only 6 birds, I think the x-pen would work fine.

Another good Idea!!! Boy you have got me thinking now. In fact the dog run is a great idea, bet I could find one or build one similar. Yeah with only 6 birds, don't need a great big structure, but big enough so they have plenty of room! Thank you so much!

 

[speedy2020]

How about just put few pallets together?

 

[smchickfarm]

How about just put few pallets together?

how do you mean? Do you mean stand them up and say make a box out of them?

 

[Life is Good!]

From what I understand about CX birds, by the time they'd be big enough for extra run space, they're not very interested in it.
I'm getting 25 Freedom Rangers - brooding in a stock tank for the first 2wks (hoping 3 but know better, they'll be too big by then) then moving to a PVC tractor we built for our layers last year....

The winter wasn't kind to the tarp top, so we'll have to modify it a bit. And I've got to add some 'furniture' for them - a moveable roost bar and some oversized branches to play on...

If you search on the forums for PVC tractors and/or hoop houses - these were easy to make, fairly inexpensive, and took a day or two to make. We had short lengths of PVC that's why it's peaked. Had we had 10' pieces, it'd have been a hoop! The hardware cloth was the expensive part! And making this made me appreciate good gloves - hardware cloth scratches something fierce!

How'd I make it? 2x4 base with braces on corners. PVC connected to wood with metal electrical fittings (to hold electric conduit to wood framing) - 2 per piece of PVC. PVC connectors (L's and T's) at joints. I'd glue them together if I were you - I dry fit it all and that's partly where the winter winds took it apart. Hardware cloth with zip ties to hold the wire cloth to the PVC, stapled at the wooden base. Got a huge strap from Harbor Frieght (it's meant for semi-drivers to tie down loads) attached with oversized barn-door handles to wooden base at corners on door front side. To move, lift up on the strap and drag. It's a bit heavy for me (female adult) to move alone, but do-able- with teen son and I it's a piece of cake, and DH can move it and not break a sweat.

Also check into Saladin style tractors - similar to this but only about 3' high and flat topped with metal or plastic roofing panels to cover the top and two sides. Those look lighter weight than this one and need a lot less hardware cloth, cutting cost down considerably. Since I'm remaking this one, it'll be more of a Saladin when I'm done. That's the job for the day's efforts today - I'll post pictures if I can! Unless I'm drafted to help DH clear the fence-line of the new weed trees....then all bets are off!

 

[smchickfarm]

From what I understand about CX birds, by the time they'd be big enough for extra run space, they're not very interested in it.
I'm getting 25 Freedom Rangers - brooding in a stock tank for the first 2wks (hoping 3 but know better, they'll be too big by then) then moving to a PVC tractor we built for our layers last year....

The winter wasn't kind to the tarp top, so we'll have to modify it a bit. And I've got to add some 'furniture' for them - a moveable roost bar and some oversized branches to play on...

If you search on the forums for PVC tractors and/or hoop houses - these were easy to make, fairly inexpensive, and took a day or two to make. We had short lengths of PVC that's why it's peaked. Had we had 10' pieces, it'd have been a hoop! The hardware cloth was the expensive part! And making this made me appreciate good gloves - hardware cloth scratches something fierce!

How'd I make it? 2x4 base with braces on corners. PVC connected to wood with metal electrical fittings (to hold electric conduit to wood framing) - 2 per piece of PVC. PVC connectors (L's and T's) at joints. I'd glue them together if I were you - I dry fit it all and that's partly where the winter winds took it apart. Hardware cloth with zip ties to hold the wire cloth to the PVC, stapled at the wooden base. Got a huge strap from Harbor Frieght (it's meant for semi-drivers to tie down loads) attached with oversized barn-door handles to wooden base at corners on door front side. To move, lift up on the strap and drag. It's a bit heavy for me (female adult) to move alone, but do-able- with teen son and I it's a piece of cake, and DH can move it and not break a sweat.

Also check into Saladin style tractors - similar to this but only about 3' high and flat topped with metal or plastic roofing panels to cover the top and two sides. Those look lighter weight than this one and need a lot less hardware cloth, cutting cost down considerably. Since I'm remaking this one, it'll be more of a Saladin when I'm done. That's the job for the day's efforts today - I'll post pictures if I can! Unless I'm drafted to help DH clear the fence-line of the new weed trees....then all bets are off!

WOW

that is awesome!!! really gives me ideas!!! I so appreciate you giving me the instructions ! My head is spinning with ideas

Hope yours turns out the way you want when you are done. I hate having to build something because we have them for such a short time. But my has 4 more years of 4H and plans to do meat birds each year, so I need to do something that is somewhat sturdy, permanent.....

 

[Life is Good!]

Forgot to add - the top is covered with a tarp from Menards ($4?) which is why it's open in the picture. If you reduce the height of the walls, the weight will decrease, as the hardware cloth is a lot heavier than you'd think. For my layers (who lived in this part of last spring), I had a square plastic rainbarrel that was cracked - cut one side wall off of the rain barrel and viola, a place to get out of the rain or sun or .... since they were little (8-14wks), it worked fine for them!

I've tried to re-use, re-purpose, re-cycle as much as possible for my chickens. They destroy 99% of whatever is in with them, so why pay top dollar for something super nice? We had a plastic chair and side table that was heading towards the garbage - that went in here nicely, so I had a somewhat nice place to sit with them and visit (and easily cleanable, as they liked to sit and poop on it while I was away!). I could bring in a scale to put on the side table and weigh them weekly so I knew how fast they were growing. (And try to take pictures too - ha!)

Check the Feeding and Watering your flock section of the forum for some incredibly creative ideas for PVC feeders and 5gal bucket watering systems.

Good fun! The idea gathering/generating part is the best! Wakes me up in the dead of night going, 'oh, I could DO THAT!'...!

 

[smchickfarm]

thank you so much for the great ideas!!!!!

 

[wyoDreamer]

Someone on here used a small utility trailer with wooden sides for a brooder. A board across it at the center to hang the heat lamp from, and when the birds were old enough to go outside they would just move the trailer to the compost pile and scrape it out.
My DH saw a picture of an a-frame tractor - one of those with a coop on top, the ramp out the floor and open air on the bottom with welded wire sides. Now he is planning out one for us!

 

[Flyboy718]

Holy cow that trampoline is AWSOME! I actually thought about the same thing but never thought of turning it upside down!

 

[Flyboy718]

Holy cow that trampoline is AWSOME! I actually thought about the same thing but never thought of turning it upside down!

How many birds do you think you could put in it?