This morning I cleaned out my larger brooder that was manufactured less than 10 years ago and realized two things
1) the screen bottom isn't metal, it is heavy plastic squares, so it won't rust - unlike my brooders that are more than 25 years old that have rusty screen bottoms as a floor above the droppings tray.
2) my hive tool that I use for prying apart the sections of bee hives when the bees have stuck things together, makes a wonderfully effective scraping tool for the screen bottom of the brooder and it didn't take me forever to get all the caked on feed and poo scraped off, like it usually does. One end is flat and the other end is curved, both ends are about 2 inches wide with a sharp edge. Very handy.
So, does anyone know a place to get very heavy duty plastic screen with the squares about 5/8 inch - so that I can replace my rusted out screens in the older brooders? I haven't checked the hatchery or poultry supply catalogs yet - but think that shipping could be more expensive than the screen, because of the size.. . . . unless it is something carried by a vendor that sells at a poultry show in Oklahoma and they would bring it to a show.
edited because I am not sure about the size of the squares. 4 of them appear to be larger than 1 inch square, but less than 2 inches square
