BROODER thread! Post pics of your brooders!

[kuntrygirl]

Does anybody have a raised outdoor brooder designed for growing out chicks? I saw the perfect one on a breeder's website a while ago, but now I can't find it again. I'm thinking about making something to grow out bantam chicks that are old enough not to need a light but are still to small to integrate into a larger flock. I'm finding it really hard to describe, but if anyone has something along those lines I would appreciate pictures. 

Are you looking for a certain number to brood?

 

[BlueCamas]

Are you looking for a certain number to brood?

small to medium number of small sized chicks.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Does anybody have a raised outdoor brooder designed for growing out chicks? I saw the perfect one on a breeder's website a while ago, but now I can't find it again. I'm thinking about making something to grow out bantam chicks that are old enough not to need a light but are still to small to integrate into a larger flock. I'm finding it really hard to describe, but if anyone has something along those lines I would appreciate pictures. 

Are you looking for a certain number to brood?

Not sure what outside brooder you saw. Probably not mine but I will offer pics of the outside brooders that I have. I keep the babies and mom in these while they are very small. Once they start getting bigger, I move them to my other pens. Pics below.

And then once the graduate from the outside raised brooder, they go to another brooder that doubles as a breeding pen.

 

[FenDruadin]

Guess I'd better post it here, too.

 

[maidenwolfx80]

Great pics .I will have to grab a pic of mine.

 

[BlueCamas]

I was thinking something more along these lines. This is a Mandarin duck pen, but it is similar to what I want to build. btw this is not my picture.

 

[kuntrygirl]

I was thinking something more along these lines. This is a Mandarin duck pen, but it is similar to what I want to build. btw this is not my picture. 

I like that!

 

[mrsdszoo]

Wow! great ideas here; I like the outdoor mom/chicks brooder, and the grow-out pens. Filling these away for future use . Thanks for sharing!

 

[cowcreekgeek]

Just finished our new brooder for use in the garage - temps dropping to 0F with 30ish chicks arriving. We'd been using a dog kennel before, but with a larger number of chicks (and plans for meaties this year), I'm building two of these guys, with plans to stack them. We may also use them to give our broodies some privacy this year (we free range normally), which is why I made it a bit taller than it needed to be (2'). Dimensions are 4'x4'. Tonight I'll add a divider box for the first few weeks to keep them contained and a bit warmer (without using all three lamps).

Cutout in back will allow the lamps to sit back there protected by chickenwire. I made them 2' high so that we could rotate them to fit through the regular door when we eventually move them to the feed room attached to our main coop (so I can get our car back into the garage).
Quote is: "How often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers chicks under her wings..." (Luke 13:34b)

Floor made from foam playroom floor squares. Probably won't be running all three lamps ever - I've got a couple 250w red bulbs to put in, but looking for some 100w-150w so I can run two bulbs constantly (to provide protection in case one burns out) without spending 12kwh/day. Otherwise, I'll just grab a dimmer at Home Despot.

Should work OK. Garage rarely drops below 40F, so with the divider box, I figure it won't be a problem at all to keep at 95 first week.

Love the quotation ~'-)

On your lights? You're gonna want 18" minimum distance between the bulb and the floor w/ heat lamps.

I couldn't find the red infrared bulbs in lower wattages either, so I wired two lamp sockets in series ... this cuts the voltage across each bulb in half, along w/ the current flow, with the added benefit that it creates a much better pattern of warmth for the birds. However, if one bulb goes dark? Both do. That's where havin' three or more independent rows of lights in series would be awful handy (even though it'd add considerable expense ~'-)

 

[cowcreekgeek]

Does anybody have a raised outdoor brooder designed for growing out chicks? I saw the perfect one on a breeder's website a while ago, but now I can't find it again. I'm thinking about making something to grow out bantam chicks that are old enough not to need a light but are still to small to integrate into a larger flock. I'm finding it really hard to describe, but if anyone has something along those lines I would appreciate pictures.

I built my outdoor brooder to be multipurpose ... it does contain lights, wired in series, so as to provide minimal lighting/warmth, but uses an old expanded metal table as the base. The glass and dividers serve to control air flow, along w/ the heat chamber, but you wouldn't have to get nearly so fancy (this thing serves well as a hospital later on, for when isolation is req'd ~'-)

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