Outdoor Brooders

[Montanomom3]

Hello, I'm looking for pics and ideas for outdoor brooders. What are your DIY ideas and pics? I'm looking for cheap but good. Thanks!!! Trying to help my son with learning struggles get started on raising chicks. Thank you for all your help!!

Check our Justin roads on YouTube

 

[LearninMyFlock]

Well, this is exciting although time will tell if it's the real deal. Yesterday when I opened a door off my one small setup my lil silkie/Cochin beelined it out of there. I gave no thought to this as they free range at times. So imagine my surprise to find her on top of the ungathered eggs of the day, talking to me and warning me away. Time will tell if she's a broody. But i found it so interesting. And she was in the coop I decided to use for my brooder, so it's all empty except for her now... Perfect if she decides to be broody. And today another hen was sitting on the new set of eggs and warning me off. So we'll see if either is broody and will stay broody through hatch and raising chicks.

Anyone have any hints or advice on that I'd be open to hear it. I'm hoping to put the chicks in as I get chicks over the next couple days or month or so...
So I hope she stays sitting and hatches the eggs she 'stole'.

 

[LearninMyFlock]

Check our Justin roads on YouTube

Thank you! I will check it out.

 

[Raptorchick]

You've got LOTS of great ideas here Yesterday I was procrastinating, so heres my new setup lol. Originally I was brooding mine in an unused coop with heat pad, but then decided I want the coop for chickens. Sooo, this happened
Big blue barrel cut in half with a few holes drilled in bottom to let out moisture (it used to be a planter-box, I found it buried pre-made out on the property), filled it with shavings, heat pad for warmth, food/water on bricks now to avoid spillage. Covered with leftover chicken wire and an extra garden gate that fits perfect on top to weigh it down. The whole setup is tucked inside an open shed/lean-to, to avoid wind/rain.

 

[Sea Wolf]

I don't rely on broody hens. I need the chicks to eat chick starter and grow. With a broody hen, unless you confine them apart from all the other chickens, they free range and don't get to eat as well and meet with "accidents". They should not be able to access the adult diet until they are ready for it. My first experiment with an incubator resulted in a 100% hatch of 40 chicks. This was in January. I initially kept them indoors in plastic storage tubs from Walmart. Shavings on the bottom and a red brooder lamp over them for warmth. When they got larger, they got moved into a large, expanded, cardboard enclosure, still with the lamp. This was in my cellar. When they feathered out and started to jump and fly they got moved outdoors. I have a spare, smaller pen I use for isolation, quarantine, raising baby critters or whatnot. It was February in New England and quite cold out. I got some sheets of pink foundation insulation and constructed a box out of it inside the pen. I hung the brooder lamp inside and added a small fan/heater for air circulation and extra heat for the space itself. As they grew, I used cement blocks and boards to give them perches to stand on. I do not have electricity where the coop is either but running an extension cord works just fine. Materials for this were mostly scavenged for free or things I already had.

 

[henless]

I always brood my chicks outside. I just couldn't stand all that chick dust in the house. Whatever you decide to use for a brooder, make sure it has a good wind block and you have a way to supply some kind of warmth to your chicks. I use either a Premier heat plate or a MHP (momma heating pad). Both work great even with below freezing temps and are much safer than a heat lamp.

I've had a couple of brooders. Both similar builds either out in the coop or alongside the coop. Just make sure it is predator safe.

My current brooder:



It has a osb bottom and wire everywhere else. All made from scrap materials I had from other projects. This is inside my wire coop that is out in the pole barn. I do put up clear plastic for a wind block. I remove/attach the plastic depending on which way the wind blows. I'm using my Premier heat plate, and we have had temps range from 30* to 90* over the last 2 weeks. I've even turned the plate off a couple of times this past week during the day.

 

[Judy Todd]

Hello, I'm looking for pics and ideas for outdoor brooders. What are your DIY ideas and pics? I'm looking for cheap but good. Thanks!!! Trying to help my son with learning struggles get started on raising chicks. Thank you for all your help!!

I use a dog pen in the garage, electricity available, garage is sheetrocked. Works great, I enclosed a work bench that was there when I bought the house, built a door and have raised 8 batches of chicks there, one every spring. Love Fluffy Feathes pics, think I will steal the idea of cutting a hole for the heat lamp.

 

[LearninMyFlock]

I'm loving all these ideas!!!! Gives me ideas to come up with something that will work for us!! Thank you!

 

[jolenesdad]

 

[tacothechicken]

I cant handle all the mess of raising 15-25 chicks a time so I put mine in a 36 in kiddie pool w/cardboard walls in our unheated garage, then at 3 weeks they're straight out into our 3x6 tractor to learn from the flock! Raised 3 sets of 15 this winter and all did great! No losses to weather or predators or illness! In record breaking snow too! Lol the other day we had our first bad rain/windstorm of the spring during the night and I came out expecting sopping wet chicks cause I hadn't realized there was a storm till next morning. Tarp got blown off and heat bulb exploded but all 15 were just fine and took a tip from the adults, perching in a covered corner a foot off the muddy ground. Here's them today! officially set on the benefits of perching and refusing their heatlamp at only a few weeks old the ladies have taught them well! They started freeranging this week too, already proven to be good little hawk evaders!
Note: yes chicks range in age appearance because they're two clutches combined from ~1 wk appart