post me your pics/plans for a brooder

[DarkWolf]

I just used plastic zip ties to keep it in place.

Some more pictures here, but the above shows it overall.

This allowed the tray to be slid out any time it needed cleaning.

For the first week I put nothing in the tray and just cleaned it at the end of the week.. Then more waste, so I cleaned it every few days.. Then I ended up putting a light layer of pine shavings in the tray to keep the poop from sticking and cleaned it every other day.

They stayed in this till 5 weeks or so, then I had to move them out due to space.. But really, they were at the age to move to the coop anyway... Too bad it's not done..

Right now they spend the day in the coop and come in during the night into a huge rubbermaid container with a screen over it..

 

[ducks4you]

I like that idea, with the ties. I know that I've bent under the sharp edges of hardware cloth before, but, then, you couldn't pull out the tray to clean.

It brings back memories of the removable cage tray with my parakeets, when I was a kid.

 

[chickens3]

That is a good idea about the table dude lol

 

[LittleMamaBigPapa]

We started out with a 16.75 gallon utility pail but it is only about 12 inches high and they almost jumped out when they learned how to jump on the little box. So now I have them in a movers Dish Pack (VERY strong box). It's laying on its side and is about 3 feet end to end and 20 tall and deep. My chicks are in our spare bedroom/computer room. Sorry the picture is soooo HUGE. This is my first photo post.

 

[GardeNerd]

Quote:
We used one of those too!

We used a terrarium the first couple of weeks and then moved them into our dog crate after that. I loved the dog crate and will always use one in the future. It was definitely easy to colapse and put away until the next time we need it. I did the same thing with the hardware cloth around the bottom that DarkWolf did, but I used twist ties to attach it because that was all I had handy. The only difference I noticed is I added a perch and they really liked to perch after about 3 or 4 weeks.

It gave me piece of mind knowing the cat couldn't break in.

 

[ducks4you]

Great ideas! My large dog crate has slots that the baby chicks could get through. But, the smaller ones can keep them in.

(You realize that I'm saving all of these suggestions on Word.)

**ducks4you dancing and feeling smarter from the good advice on this forum**

Sorry...too much emailing.

 

[thekla]

I had an unused bedroom with outdoor access and a sink etc - so we took the closet doors off, lined the floor (of the closet with scrap linolium then cardboard, then bedding (used the pellets) the open area from the door removal was 4' wide so we built a gate using plywood and hardware wire - the clothes bar was perfect for hanging the lights and they have about 8'x3' to move around in. It is very snug and keeps the little ones draft free. I did hang a couple spotlights in there also for daytime to give them a bit more light - just got the clip on fixtures and used the clothes bar again - at night I turn off all but the red heat lamp.

I built a second one for the older batch - using 3' wide hardware wire - just bought enough by foot to make a big circle and used zip ties with a bit of overlap to complete the circle - it sorta worked - but the bedding leaked out under the bottom edge - if I use this plan again I will use a kiddie pool in the bottom and make the wire fit around the outside, to reach in I just snipped the wire twice - about 1 foot down and about 3 feet apart - and bent it down to reach in then pulled it back up and it snagged itself to stay up - when I used that part later I just zip tied the cut area closed again. it was good as a temporary one since I just cut all the zip ties to get the wire back to re-use. Pretty simple if you need a stop gap to provide extra room before the coop is ready. (gotta get that coop built)