Quail brooder help?

[Ravenlover]

I was thinking of having the heat lamp on top of the lid. You should have hardware cloth or something over the top. Here is what I have.
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Hey i just realized that people will probably buy that from you if you think u can sell it at a profit price as a brooder tub.

 

[Nabiki]

Hey i just realized that people will probably buy that from you if you think u can sell it at a profit price as a brooder tub.

I don't know. I'd have to charge something like $70 to cover the materials and time.

 

[father0fnine]

I thought I had this figured out, but I was very wrong!

I put the brooder together today, and I was under the impression quail need a lid on the brooder. I took a large Rubbermaid bin I had, cut a viewing/vent window and covered it in hardware cloth.

Next (and I thought I was being clever!) I mounted the heat lamp inside of the lid. I’m using a ceramic bulb. Well, it occurred to me as I was doing this that it might get too hot, and risk damaging the plastic, so I ran it for about half an hour and came back to check.

Yep. The lid is hot, and the lamp is too hot to touch. I unplugged everything. How do those of you using a Rubbermaid tote as a brooder deal with the stupid heat lamps?!

I have two quail brooders that have worked really well for me. One, I put a fixture (but not a heat lamp, just an ordinary surface mount light bulb fixture) on the underside of the lid and ran a, I wanna say 40watt, light bulb. The lower watt bulb kept the lid from getting to hot.

My better setup was more expensive. I cut half the lid away leaving only enough of the edges for the lid to let it secure as it was designed to. I covered the hole with hardware cloth like you and others did (I used zip ties to secure it). I put a heat lamp on the grid with a light bulb from the reptile section of some pet store. Then, to control the heat, I used a "temperature controller" that I had lying around (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N56KEU6) from when I bought a hygrometer to control the humidity in one of my pet enclosures. Kept the brooder nice and toasty without getting hot. Kept an eye on the lid but it never came close to melting. Had a nice raising of that clutch.

 

[TeePants]

That looks close enough to cook the chicks. Have you checked that the temp is correct with the lamp on? Mine is high enough that I can easily reach between the bin and the lamp (maybe 9"?) and directly under the lamp still gets a little too warm in the afternoons. I actually fried a thermometer trying to put the lamp even with the top of the brooder like you've got.

Also, based on my limited experience, they will eventually escape that. My oldest ones are 4 days old and already practicing jumping and flapping.

I’ve got a thermometer and it’s reading 96, which is fine for babies right?

 

[FloorCandy]

I have a metal arm thing you can buy at petsmart, which I use if I need to set up my 50 gallon bin brooder, because the sides are really high. For my normal starter brooders I just put the light on top of the hardware cloth on the lid.

This has only a small window on top, to keep the heat in for when they’re very small. I place it so it’s at least a half inch from any of the plastic areas around the edges.

As they get bigger I’ll use the big brooder with the lamp on top of the hardware cloth.

 

[TeePants]

Hmm, ok, so if I widen the viewing window thing I can theoretically just sit it on top? That works for me. Thanks!


Edited to ask: Since it’s an opaque bin (I just used one we already had) should I run lights in the lid or on the sides? Otherwise, it’s SUPER dark in there...

 

[FloorCandy]

Hmm, ok, so if I widen the viewing window thing I can theoretically just sit it on top? That works for me. Thanks!


Edited to ask: Since it’s an opaque bin (I just used one we already had) should I run lights in the lid or on the sides? Otherwise, it’s SUPER dark in there...

If you remove a lot of the lid and put hardware cloth, light should get in thru the top.

 

[Nabiki]

I have two sizes of brooders. That blue one is my large brooder. I have much smaller ones for newly hatched and for buttons.

 

[TeePants]

...oh. Should I make a smaller one? Shoot. How much smaller?

edit: I got it, I remembered we have a smaller bin we use for Christmas decorations. I’ll just dump those into a bag and make a HWC lid for it real quick and move the lamp over.

 

[FloorCandy]

...oh. Should I make a smaller one? Shoot. How much smaller?

edit: I got it, I remembered we have a smaller bin we use for Christmas decorations. I’ll just dump those into a bag and make a HWC lid for it real quick and move the lamp over.

They don’t need a lid until about 7 + days old. If you can hang the light somehow, you don’t even need to make a lid.