Affordable Fun Finds

[Teresa D]

I got mine from a grocery store. Watermelon box just ask the produce department when you can pick one up.

 

[Teresa D]

They were inside for almost 6 weeks in my basement studio. Way too long, waiting for my coop to arrive. My second batch of hatchlings went straight out to the coop.

 

[Becstasy94]

Y’all RUN, don’t walk, to Dollar General and get a T-Rex mirror

 

[FrostRanger]

I got some colorful flower shaped pinwheels from dollar tree the birds enjoy

 

[Sally PB]

I found a small dog crate at the local Goodwill store for $12. It's my broody breaker.

I snap up any sized dog crate I find for cheap. I have lots of uses for them.

 

[RememberTheWay]

Some gals sleep in the little boxes, others perch. At a dollar something each, I couldn't go wrong!

I was at Costco when I told a random associate that I was picking my baby chicks soon and needed a brooder. After explaining what a brooder was, he searched the back and came out with this produce box. It's absolutely perfect!

I ended up calling Costco later that day and told the manager that I received the best customer service from this young man. I didn't go into the whole brooder thing with the manager. In fact, I didn't even tell the manager that he gave away the box. I just focused on his outstanding service.

What's nice about these produce boxes is that there are holes in 4 corners. I covered two completely, and partially covered the other two where I threw a roost for the chicks. They are not using the roost as of it. But I suspect they will in a couple of weeks.

I saw you said you wanted to do a hatchery so I want to let you know that you probably don't want your young birds roosting. It's actually better for them to sleep in a pile on the floor. Mainly because their keel bones are still soft and formable and if they start roosting too soon you can have issues with crooked keel bones later. Depending on what you plan to breed to as far as selection traits and a standard their keel bones might matter other then it's just not good for them to have a crooked keel. Anyways - love the brooder! Fantastic idea and I will definitely keep it in mind as I build my new hatchery!

 

[RememberTheWay]

I do too. I have a lot of them. I've actually been needing some trap nests of sorts to track production and do pair breeding and have been considering taking a bunch of them and building a little shelf/stack of them similar to like a 9 bin cube shelf, but with kennels lined up and stacked so I have like 9-12 cages all in one spot to do tracking for a week or so at a time.

I found a small dog crate at the local Goodwill store for $12. It's my broody breaker.

I snap up any sized dog crate I find for cheap. I have lots of uses for them.