Cardboard box brooder help. Safe for outside?

[Bellamore22]

I have a large refrigerator box that I plan on using for new baby chicks, but I am worried about using it outside, because maybe a cat could claw through it.

I have it set under a patio, safe from any rain, and its not going to snow or anything. We don't have any foxes or hawk issues, only the neighbor's cats. I think if I cover the opening with chicken wire, and seal off any holes or cracks it could be safe.

What do you guys think? Any ideas for outside DIY brooders would be helpful.

 

[stvnschnell]

I'm curious about the homemade brooder as well. Mainly just the spacing. IE how many square inches per chick? I have 15 chicks arriving in mid June, and possibly 15 more in late June/Early July. I'm also concerned about the heat this time of year. I live in Ohio not Texas or Florida but it was flirting with 90 yesterday and today. Could be a hot summer

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Raccoons, rats, and weasels kill chickens too...I'd not do it.

If you have a dog crate, that you could take and put inside it, that would be better- but how to make that fire proof with the heat lamp??.

There is a brooder section of BYC you might have a look there!

 

[Amanda15]

We are doing the same thing with our five chicks right now and they are fine. They were getting too big and smelly for inside, but we didn't finish the coop yet, so we just took a large cardboard box and put it outside for them. They are on our porch, but it is covered in screen so no animals can get in. Is the area you are putting them screen covered?

 

[randys]

I only see bad things happening with a cardboard brooder outside.

 

[DelcoChix]

Personally, cardboard is just fine for an indoor brooder, or on an enclosed porch, but if it were outdoors with no enclosure around it I would never take the chance. Nighttime predators would have that opened in a heartbeat---raccoons can chew through 'chicken wire' so cardboard would be nothing to them, neighbor dogs and cats would be intrigued, (to put it mildly), not to mention the numbers of other critturs that would enjoy an easily accessible meal of little chicken nuggets. You didn't say where you live but I'd imagine you have more predators roaming around than you realize--you just never had anything they wanted to eat before! Also, in order to try to keep them safe you'd have to keep it closed up...and even with some vent holes cut in it, you'd have a heatlamp in there---kind of risky without good ventilation.
If you could leave it in a garage or shed you'd be fine, as long as you could keep it protected...Good luck!

 

[Bellamore22]

Ya, I don't want to deal with the risk. No cardboard then. Thanks for the replies.

 

[Bellamore22]

Thanks for the warning, I don't know how to make the box work at all the more I think about it.

 

[Bellamore22]

I plan on using a huge Iris 34.5 gal heavy duty storage bin, plastic welding a window on the lid replaced with 1" galvanized poultry wire, and maybe extra wire bars. The plastic is too thick to puncture, and It has locks on the lid so there is no way a dog, fox, cat, etc. is going to be able to rip through it.

 

[Biologrady]

I've got my 4 chicks in a cardboard box for now, also inside a huge (3x4x5') dog crate, lined with hardware cloth, and inside my garage (another week or so and it moves outside to the shed). Keeps the dog out, the cat paws out, and chicks can't sneak out either. You might find a similar dog crate or rabbit hutch you could adapt. Craig's list and Freecycle are great sources.