Outdoor Brooders

[LearninMyFlock]

And @Blooie has some ideas here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/yes-you-certainly-can-brood-chicks-outdoors.68067/

@azygous has a wonderful set-up for brooding chicks outdoors too:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...and-start-raising-your-chicks-outdoors.71995/

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This is multi use.
I use it in the big coop as a brooder, to take pullets to swaps, as a hospital spot in the coop, and for a see but no touch introduction cage in the coop.

I kept my 6 chicks inside and started putting them outside in a smallish dog crate for a few hours a day at 2 weeks. Then, around 4 weeks I let them stay outside in a large dog crate almost all day, but they slept inside. Now, at 6 weeks they are outside in the big dog crate untill we finish the coop.

Not sure if you're still looking for ideas and ours isn't a permanent brooder but we just dragged an XL dog crate out into our coop and used a MHP to keep them warm. So far it's worked really well for us and once they outgrow the crate we'll just collapse it and give them the full run of the coop.

I will post some pictures when I get home.

This is the best outdoor brooder there is.
Nothing to build, she sat and hatched in the coop. No heat pad required. No special drinkers or feeders and she gets the protection of her mother and her mothers tribe.
The chick is three days old.

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THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I appreciate all the ideas. It's helping me form more of an idea. Even though just today I was told no you need to keep them inside. Thank you for the proof that I don't need to!!!

 

[LearninMyFlock]

This is the best outdoor brooder there is.
Nothing to build, she sat and hatched in the coop. No heat pad required. No special drinkers or feeders and she gets the protection of her mother and her mothers tribe.
The chick is three days old.

View attachment 1733357
View attachment 1733361

View attachment 1733365

If I could just convince one of my girls to go broody

 

[21hens-incharge]

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I appreciate all the ideas. It's helping me form more of an idea. Even though just today I was told no you need to keep them inside. Thank you for the proof that I don't need to!!!

Technically in the coop is still inside.....just not the human house.

Yeah don't tell a broody mum to keep her chicks inside.

 

[Shadrach]

If I could just convince one of my girls to go broody

If you let a couple of your hens accumulate a pile of eggs it may just do the trick.

 

[LearninMyFlock]

If I could just convince one of my girls to go broody

Really? Like just stop collecting eggs? They all lay in the same box LOL... How long do you let them in there? I'd love for them to raise their own.

 

[CindyinSD]

Some breeds are more likely to go broody than others... Silkies are famous for that, I hear. Game hens, too. I’ve ordered some Cochins for that purpose. I ordered Buckeyes also, because they’re supposed to be good mousers, but they’re also said to tend toward broodiness. Plus there will be roo chicks... that’s always helpful. At present all my sweet girls remain maidens, so no fertile eggs/chicks of their own as of yet.

The broodyish hens are not typically the heavy egg-layers and the champion layers don’t have time for brooding. Nevertheless, one of my Columbian Wyandottes sat on a fake egg for a couple months. She gave up just before my mail-order chicklets arrived. Oh well. It’s ridiculously NOT spring here. She’s still a pullet and it may not have gone well to give her a couple or three of my baby meaties to mother in this snowy slushy mess.

Thanks for all the great ideas, everyone! My meaties are destined for a tractor but in the meantime I’m going to have to move them out of their giant-tote brooder soon. I’m in shock & awe at how fast they’re growing!

 

[MaryOos]

I got a huge produce box from Costco free. The ones they have onions and potatoes in. I laid cardboard over the 2 ends and a piece of welded wire over the center top to help keep mice out and to keep them in when they began flying (which doesn't take long). The heat lamp hung from the garage rafters and rested on the wire top. I also made a wire tunnel with a heating pad over it to give them a respite from the bulb and to replicate hiding under a mama bird. (see link) Later, when they didn't need it to be quite as warm, I replaced the heat tunnel with upside cardboard boxes for them to get a break from the lamp. https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...d-in-the-brooder-picture-heavy-update.956958/

 

[bobbi-j]

Really? Like just stop collecting eggs? They all lay in the same box LOL... How long do you let them in there? I'd love for them to raise their own.

Or better yet, get some golf balls, fake eggs or anything else that resembles and egg and put them in the nests or wherever you would like them to set. Then you're not wasting eggs.

 

[aart]

I brood out in coop from 1 week after hatch, and integrate by 4-6 weeks.
Not really a brooder per se but a temporary wall that gets installed to section off part of the coop with a separate run.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/integrating-new-birds-at-4-weeks-old.72603/

 

[Dizzydog]

This is one I made for older chicks when the weather was favorable. It could also be for a broody hen. The lid of the box needs to be redesigned but was cheap. I made it for nothing, from materials I had around but new materials would probably run less than $100
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/brooder-pen.72232/