Modern Brooder Design

Dh is currenly laid off.. so him and I kind of have been sitting around elaborating on our coop and brooder, we would have liked to have done much more but of course had to work with things we had and make due.. so:
Rubbermaid type tote
metal window screen
left over plexiglass
scraps of wood
and screws..

And of course if you read any of my other posts you all know he and my teen had to buy 2 cornish chicks to "train" the dog.. so he wouldn't eat the expensive chicks... lol.. (dog loves the chicks)
So the cornish are now 2 week old giants, so we needed a second tote.. so we dug a little deeper in the attic and walla came up with a second tote and he elaborated and came up with an adjustable light holder.
So of course a few photos.
Tote 1 (has the cornish in it, thier names You & Me (Me has a green mark on his head)):

#2

#3

Now the second tote has the lite pole and a tall roosting pole.. he has built a ladder up to the pole but it will be installed later when the babies grow a bit.
#1

This is so wierd, is there a limit to pictures? I have tried three times to post the last two and it wont let me.. whats up with that? maybe I' shut down and try again before asking Dave???

#2

Ok, it worked, lets try the last one, how the lite pole is attached.
#3

Thanks for posting the pictures,they are really neat. It really looks like a project I can do. I've 6 Delaware pullet chicks ordered for late April and have been racking my brain trying to figure out what to do with them besides puting them in a cardboard box. Dora

Fran love those pictures! Now that's plexiglass on the sides of the tote? How did he attach it? Did he pre-drill the holes first?

In picture #2 there is something that looks like a carrying case on the left. What is that?

Light. Is it screwed on from the inside? How did he cut the totes?

MollyD

Molly, Yes he predrilled the plexiglass using a bradbpoint drillbit. The plexiglass is attached with small nuts & bolts and yes the light pole is screwed in from the inside with nuts & bolts too.
He cut the lid & front of the totes useing a skill saw, the lid, I stood on to keep it from flopping around too much but not sure how he got those fronts done by himself..

The windows were such a great idea.. we are watching the babies more than the TV..

As for what you are talking about in pic #2, I am not sure.. if you mean the little white thingy inside the tote.. someone gave that to me to put small potted plants in a long time ago.. I had never used it and while searching for the second tote came across it and thought it made a perfect roosting perch for the 2 cornish.

love it all! gotta get DH to come and look.... pefect for our fall hatches or next years projects [no more chickens in the dining room, he promises that will be finished so we can use it to EAT in.... yeah right... ^_^

Too funny again...

I thought everybody knew.. modern meant IN dining room..
Mine are in the living room and I find everyone watching them more than tv.. sometimes dh forgets to turn on TV. lol

I think that is the neatest brooder I've seen! Gotta make one. Gotta find that plexiglass too! I like being able to see them and have them see out.

MollyD

I am thinking.. already on day one.. the large tote is too small for my chicks.. but the cornish may be able to go out to the coop if I put a heat source out there for them.. they are 2 weeks but almost feathered.. just too rainy and damp this week.. hopefully warmer weather next week.

Anyway, then I will split the chicks giving them a little more room. But I will never get this many at once again..

Oh.. and I don't do basements.. some left over fear.. don't understand it.. but hey I'm over 50.. don't have to.. haha

It is an incredible brooder! You should market them.

But what is that about putting it in the dining room, living room or basement?--I convinced DH they belong in the bedroom He is looking a little leary at the incubators now--they are in the bedroom too, where the brooder used to be. I think he is catching on to the fact that there may be chicks in the eggs, chicks that will have to go in a brooder....in the bedroom!

I read a horror story about someone who put their first brood in a plastic swimmin pool in the basement--it was winter and the cold air poured through the stone foundation, gradually filled the basement and poured up and over the side of the pool--many of the chicks never recovered. I would worry about rats too. You can tell the sort of basement I have.

undersstand totally, both of you. let me say oru basement is SPECIAL. i even helped dig the footing when i was only ***** edited to say "quite young"

we have a room down there that is supposed to one day be the "cellar" but we may dig a root cellar somewhere else on the property, closer to the garden. so for now soundlike a good brooder room.

but then i'll have to sleep down there!

catscan, i like your idea of having them in the bedroom, like having a baby, easier to take care of in the middle of the night...

i am so tired and sickly, i may not even hear Creamy PB is he calls tonight. please say a prayer, he didn't like his bandage, and he kept falling over [was anyhow], and now he has closed his eyes. so i am making sure he eats and drinks. but during the night, i won't be up to it...

your idea of splitting is perfect fran!

We have a spare bedroom but Paul draws the line at them being in a bedroom :-( That would be my first choice.

MollyD

To be honest I wouldn't have the in the bedroom after the first week or so--but the dogs rule the rest of the house and one of the German Shepherds has enough separation anxiety to take all my briefcases and backpacks down from the dining room table and go through everything. I come home and my checkbooks and ipod and everything are all over the floor. There is no way I could leave noisy little chicks where the dogs could find them. As I read over a box of live chicks in a reptile store "Fluffy and Crunchy!"

oh but Catscan.. you have to meet my dog.. two weeks ago when he meet the cornish, my dh introduced them and worked with them many times in a day.. he would have the dog lay down and the chicks would walk on him.. the dog would get cheese bits and the chicks would scratch for a little feed on the dog in his fur.. he loved it.. well now.. you must know the doggie password to get past the dog to visit the chicks.. lol.. and forbid you being a cat.. which he used to love... but this week chicks rule.. haha..

so dog has moved out of the bedroom, on his own and lays in front of the brooder window protecting his chicks!

frans530, you have a good doggy! What kind is he? The only one of mine I would trust, even with training, is the big Akbash--He is a good boy; the others are a little too excitable, especially in a pack. I have convinced them to sleep in the bedroom with the brooder without going ballistic, but they are never in there alone and the chicks are in a dog crate.

We need a picture of your good dog doing his thing. I'll show it to mine as an example of a well behaved dog:0)

The bedroom I mentioned is a spare. No one sleeps in there so they could be isolated from the rest of the house if necessary. We have two dogs. The Malamute stays outside 99% of the time. He doesn't like it indoors. Too warm for him. The other is our German shorthair who at 14 finds stairs difficult so she doesn't go upstairs to the bedrooms.

MollyD

My brooders look like yours....only yours are much more professional

sweet!

the lids are cut or melted(Cheap one need to be melted with hot metal as the cutter,otherwize they shatter)
1x1 cage wire on the top,zip tied

I use lights from HD with 100 W bulbs

and they spend the first week in these...then they get moved to other brooders,till they hit the big one which is 4x8,then at aprox 6-8 weeks they go to a small enclosed barn till they are culled

i like your pvc stand too!

do you have them separated by breed or batch? i see som ewithout vaulted skulls... what are those big guys?

The PVC is my seed /seedling starter rack
2 of the brooders are on the floor under it,And I'm running out of room
for the plants so the chicks may be moved

The chicks are pretty much seperated by breed
The polish are in one and the Sumatras are in the others
The Sumatras are then divided by bantam and large fowl
The chicks you see were all hatched Saturday

I sometimes have to divide the large fowl polish from the bantam too

all these guys will be divided by size to go in 2 different 4x4 brooders
(I then mix the polish and sumatras)
probably on Saturday AM because I am hoping for a HUGE hatch Saturday
A fellow member of the polish breeders club had some excess eggs and sent us
about 16 buff laced /frizzle eggs and the same amount of Cuckoo/frizzle (all polish)
plus the eggs they I already had from my birds

May have to make another brooder...LOL
most of my hatches have been excellent this year(last year sucked)
only about 2 or 3 don't hatch out of aprox 25 I put in each week

well, i had ot give up gadening to get htis chick thing done! glad you still have your seeds started!

gee, ho lucky are you, i wish somebody just HAPPENED to have extras LOL

my last hatch was good i think, put in 24 eggs, got 8 chicks.

well, i just can't convince DH that it is MODERN to have chickens in the house, regardless of their age. but he puts up with it anyhow ^_^

Tf tell him you are saving him money since they get to use the house heat too ^_^ Somehow if I present things as 'saving money' he always goes for it LOL

MollyD

If they were outside they'd need a heat lamp...and thats BIG money(electric bill)
inside I start with 100W ,then 75W....60W.....
lots cheaper

Can they take propane or kerosene heat? I've got both kinds of heaters here.

MollyD

"that was till we had chicken fettachini while watching them through their window... "

That had me rolling with laughter frans!

MollyD

Everyone of them look great! I am going to show them to my DH and have him make me one! I spend most of my day on the first floor so they are usually in the hall or livingroom.

molly
if you can keep the box where they are at 90 degrees with kero or propane then yes...and if you figure out how to do it with propane ....let me know
National Greed...Oppps,I mean National Grid bill is over 300 a month...just for electric

I have a LP heater that attaches at the top of the propane tanks. There is no open flame and it has a screen to keep you from touching the hot surface.
The kero heater looks like a small fireplace. Very portable. It's 10K btu's. Would have to be placed just above their heads so they wouldn't try to perch on it I think. Might lead to crispy tail feathers and (horrors) barbecue chicken!

MollyD

Crested.. what about a propane run generator??

I've got a clear tote. Just cut the lid opening for the screen. How have you guys attached the screening to the lids?

MollyD

My screen is stapled to the 1x2s then stapled through the underside of the tote lid into the wood.