Independence Homestead

Chicks In Our First Brooder Box

After we came home with our chicks, it was time to assemble the brooder box.  We had everything we would need, but we hadn’t put it together yet.  While it’s often recommended that you have everything ready to go before bringing home the chicks, I’m glad we waited until we had the chicks.  We were better able to consider the size of the chicks in our plans when they were there in front of us.  Plus it took about 5 minutes to assemble everything, so it’s not like the birds were in the traveling box for an inordinate amount of time.

First Brooder Box Light Setup

We had saved some cardboard boxes in anticipation of using them as the brooder box, but we quickly realized that all the boxes would be too small.  We had an unused Rubbermaid bin, and it was large enough to be the brooder, so we setup that. We laid down newspaper, and then covered it with shredded paper.  It’s important that chicks have a textured surface to walk on, or they can develop leg problems.  So just laying newspaper would have been bad, but the shredded paper made it great.  We also set in the food container and the waterer we made, which is described below.  We also setup some lights since it’s important the chicks be kept warm.  A couple regular houselamps with 100 watt bulbs did the trick.  We set them up right at the edge of the bin so they were as close as possible.

Unfortunately our waterer was too big for this setup in the Rubbermaid, so we had to figure out an alternative waterer setup.  A lot of chicken water systems are gravity systems where there’s a large water container in the center that’s inverted over a shallow saucer or trough.  As the chickens drink from the saucer or trough, the water from the container flows out to replenish it.  Our first attempt at a homemade watering system was an old pickle jar inverted on one of our regular saucers.  While it functioned, the saucer was too shallow.  There wasn’t enough water for the chicks to really drink it.  So we tried again.  This time I looked for a deeper saucer.  An plastic cream cheese container did the trick (well, vegan cream cheese container).  For the water container at the center, I cut a plastic juice container in half.  I use a knife to cut some holes near the newly made open end.  I made sure to make the holes high enough up so that the water level in the saucer would be deep enough for the chicks.  This second system worked very well.  The water was deep enough for the chicks, and it flowed from the center container just fine.

While this brooder setup was very functional, we knew the birds would be too large for it soon.  Plus I wanted one that was large enough for us to use our regular chicken waterer.  I really like the idea of using cardboard boxes so that we could easily and inexpensively make a brooder, and we could just recycle it after the chicks were large enough to live outside.  We’re not going to raise chicks all the time, so I didn’t need something permanent.  But no single box would be large enough.  I came up with the idea of cutting up several boxes and taping them together.  Where I work we go through a lot of paper, and there are always paper boxes around.  Since those are all the same dimensions, it would be easy to cut out some sides and tape them together.

Larger Version 2 Brooder Box

Here’s a picture of what we ended up with.  It’s three boxes long, and three boxes high.  It was very easy to use a box cutter and cut the boxes.  Taping them was also a breeze.  You can see where I cut up a lid and used pieces to provide support between the different levels of boxes.  This setup has been surprisingly sturdy, too.  We have been able to carry the whole thing outside to empty it into the compost pile, and it holds together just fine.

We made it as high as it is because the birds can fly up pretty well once they get feathers on their wings.  But with it so high, the lamp is a lot further away.  When we first moved them into this new brooder we watched them carefully to make sure they were warm enough.  At first they were somewhat clumped under the light, indicating they were cold.  Once we covered the top of the brooder with flattened paper box lids, that containment of air increased the temperature of the brooder.  Then they seemed warm enough.

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Chicks On New Roosts

ne other nice thing about making the brooder out of cardboard is that it was easy to install roosts.  In the first brooder we had noticed the birds liked to perch on top of the waterer, so they were wanting a perch.  In the second brooder, we made some holes in the boxes, and slid through some branches that George found in the yard.  The birds sit on the roosts quite frequently, so I’m glad we included them.

This second brooder is large enough that it should work until we move the chickens outside.  From what I’ve read, we expect to do that at around 8 weeks.  For now, though, they’re pretty happy in the brooder setup.  We change the water a few times a day, and replenish the food as needed.  The light is still on all the time, but once they have more feathers, we should be able to turn it off at night.