Our new Brooder Box!

[ChickenChick00]

Our family has had chickens for several years now. We decided that we wanted to raise some Coturnix Quail and Cornish X chickens for meat. We wanted to start now but since we are in colder weather and they would be going in an unheated garage which we have had problems with coons we would need something to keep them warm but also safe. We built this brooder to solve our problems.

This is the front of the brooder. It has a hinged hardware cloth lid. There is also a divider to separate the birds.

This is the back of the brooder. It has dimmer switches to control the temperature of the heat lamps independently for both sides.

This is the inside of the brooder. It has a hardware cloth floor. On the back wall you can see the groove that the divider slides into.

This is the litter tray that the chickens mess falls into. We will fill it with wood shavings. All we have to do to clean it is pull the litter tray out just like a drawer and dispose of the mess.

This is the 1/4 inch bolt and T nut which we assembled it with and allows us to disassemble it easily.

This is the brooder taken apart. It is easily assembled and disassembled in 5 minutes.

 

[RJSorensen]

That is a very nice build you have there. The descriptions, together with the nice photographs, make for a nice read. Looks like you know what you are doing… some interesting ideas to incorporate into the next build I do. Thanks for posting and sharing this.

Best to you and your birds,

RJ

 

[Cruiser]

I'm ChickenChick00's daddy. This morning it was 4* & the brooder was holding 85*. I'm thinking one more clamp-on brooder light & we will be good to go.

 

[Bush84]

ChickenChick00, great looking brooder! Let me also say that I was impressed with the way you wrote that post. I had not noticed that your birthday was in your name. I thought you were an adult. I don't expect many your age to be like that.

 

[ChickenChick00]

Thanks guys!

 

[Cruiser]

It got down to -4* last night & the lowest the brooder got was 96*. I did add in an extra 125 watt heat lamp. I'll probably put the chicks in it today. Bush84 she is a very intelligent & hard working young lady. She gets that from her mom!

 

[Bush84]

We had a high of -7 a couple of days ago. Spring seems so close but yet so far this time of year. Have you looked into using a thermostat like in an incubator? I'm not sure about Indiana but we get crazy temp swings. We went from -30 to +10 in a day. I'd worry about cranking up the heat lamps to keep up one day then baking the chicks the next due to a warm up. Probably won't be as big of a deal in warmer months but may be something to consider. You could maybe have one of the lamps on constantly but the others running off the thermostat.

 

[Cruiser]

Yeah we had thought about a thermostat. But with the constant switching on and switching off we was concerned about burning the balb out. My wife usually always comes home on her lunch hour and she can check the temperature then so I think will be okay. I hope.

 

[Bush84]

Only one way to find out. If it doesn't work out you can always add a thermostat later.