GQF Box brooder and Grow out pen

[Thenino]

Hi,

I was curious if anyone has any experience with the GQF box brooder. I was interested in getting one but curious if you felt they were worked ok. I can't find any reviews on the grow-out pens that stack with them. Do those work well at all? I am looking for a way to raise a lot of chicks and keep them safe until I can move them to an unheated coop & . I am in Atlanta so probably just need to keep them in a brooder for 6 weeks max. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Percheron chick]

I found the broader on CL for $50 so of course I had to buy it. I find it best for the first few weeks. By 3-4 weeks they are too tall to comfortably stand in them. You can easily have 25 in there week one. By week 2-3 you need to start splitting the group up. I use old water troughs when they outgrow the gqf. By week 4-5 they are back as one large ggroup in a 6x10 chick proof chain link pen. I do like the brooder. Easy to clean and sanitize. If you go with a battery brooder, it takes up very little floor space. The downsize is they quickly outgrow it and the price. If you are doing it on a large scale, it will help keep the breeds separate until they feather out.

 

[Thenino]

Thanks for the advice! They claim that you can have up to 100 chicks up to 2 weeks does that seem accurate? They also say it will hold 48 up to 4 weeks. It sounds like based on your experience that would not be true. And I guess the grow off pen would not be much help either given that the product description says it is the same as the brooder just without a heating element. I guess to make the grow-out pen useful you would need to buy the 14-inch expander to make it taller.

 

[Percheron chick]

It's only 3x3. I can't imagine100 chicks for 2 weeks in that amount of space. I would say my feed store that uses these brooders might have as many as 50-75 on Fri when they get chicks in but they are down to less than 25 each by Mon I do batches of 25 chicks and that seems to be about the right number.

 

[Thenino]

Thank you! What is your process for sanitizing? How often do you do it and what do you do? Thank you for the insights.

 

[Percheron chick]

The drop tray makes it easy to clean while the chicks are using it. Between batches, I pull the floor (wire) clean it with a stiff brush, hose and dish soap. Reassemble then spray with a bleach solution and let air dry. Feeders too. Less than an hour and it's dry and ready for the next batch.

 

[Thenino]

Awesome. That's not too bad.

Thanks!