Built a new permanent Brooder

[Missceegee]

I’ve built a couple of temporary brooders that have worked well for their purposes and times. Plastic tote for a few chicks, 4x4 notched plywood with HC lid to take apart and store flat when not in use, and most recently a couple of stacked 2x8s making a 10’x 6’ x 16” brooder with 3 large fold up lids with chicken wire in the garage on a tarp. That was for our current batch of meat birds currently 5 weeks old and on pasture. But I bought chicks and hatched chicks and had 30 that needed a space. So I subdivided the meat birds’ brooder and gave them a section while I came up with what I wanted. Over the past couple days hubby built it with a little help from me.

The new brooder details:
- 3’ wide x 8’ long x 28” high plus legs whose length I would prefer to be 4-5” higher but we used a 4x4 we had
- 3 side doors
- all hardware cloth and plywood makes very secure
- Flip down front for easy shaving removal
- Linoleum tile floor for easy clean
- Hanging water and food
- Roost bars - portable baby ones for now. Thinking on how I want a bigger one
- Heat plates covered in contact paper
- Nightlight so they can find it all the first couple nights as they huddled at first
- Permanent space in a barn stall. Feed in a metal trash can right there
- water just outside the stall
- space for isolation pens for broodies

I’m thrilled so far. We sort of winged it. I may rework how I have the heat plates to have less cord inside the brooder but that equals another hole in the cloth. Thinking on it.

We bought 2 sheets of plywood and a few 2x4 and 1x2, but had the rest. Sorry there was no real plan.

 

[casportpony]

Wow, that is nice!

 

[Missceegee]

First night went well. I did have to add that night light and show them the heat plates but they’ve got the lay of the land now.

 

[Auntiejessi3]

Very nice!