Taking care of baby chicks can be troublesome at the start. Learn how to have a perfect startup and find out how to build a chick brooder for as little as a couple of dollars.
Keeping young chickens safe and healthy at their developing age is crucial if you want to have healthy chickens.
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How Do You Provide Your Baby Chicks With A Perfect Brooder?
Buying chicken brooder boxes can be financially demanding for somebody who is trying to cut food costs by keeping chickens.
In addition to that, people don’t see the logic in investing in good, efficient, long-lasting tools, and equipment.
Luckily here we are, on the internet, giving you the best DYI project for chicken brooder boxes build.
To make this highly functional and cheap chicken brooder you will need:
A kiddie pool (you can do it without one, but it’s much messier).
A box (cardboard, plywood or any similar material).
A Heat lamp (75-watt standard bulb or specialized heat bulbs that you can find on the market).
A chick feeder (one that is specially designed for baby chicks).
A chick waterer (also one that is only for baby chicks, add some small crystal pebbles to prevent drownings) You can use home-made feeders and waterers if you like.
A thermometer (the digital ones might be inaccurate)
Use paper towels for bedding or something softer (small blanket, washing towels) make sure it’s something they can’t eat or swallow.
Ready to set up a brooder box? OK here we go:
First, grab a box that would be the best fit for the number of chickens you have.
It is important for baby chicks to have room to move away from each other if they are warm. Also, a box that is too small for them will start smelling very fast very badly.
Place the box in the area of your choosing, gather up the paper towels and the blanket.
First place the blanket on the bottom smoothening it out, apply the paper towels on top to create a cozy place for the baby chicks to stay.
As the baby chicks get bigger you can change the towels with sand or something similar.
If you decide to use the kiddie pool, first place the pool in the area where you would like to keep your little chicks. Afterward, use the box to create gating all around the pool, so you will keep the chickens inside.
Then place the bedding material on the bottom, use one chicken waterer for up to 30 baby chicks, and one chicken feeder for the same amount of chicks.
Install the heat lamp on top of a box and place it in the middle of the brooder if you prefer. Also if your chicken brooder is all closed up make sure it has openings for proper ventilation.
It is important to pay attention to fire safety when installing the heat lamp inside the box, check the thermometer frequently so you are sure the temperature is optimal for the young chickens.
This DYI Chicken brooder can be updated with openings on top or side, but make sure you put a net on the opening so the little chickens will be protected at all times.
So, now that you’ve got your brooder all set up you can sit down and enjoy the younglings.
