How to make your own chicken brooder
When hatching chicks in an incubator, a brooder is required, in which they will be kept in the first days of life. Many people make this device on their own, without buying it ready-made, because the price of ready-made boxes for chicks is often unjustifiably overstated. And it's easier to make a do-it-yourself brooder for all chickens by choosing the right design and the right materials. But in the manufacture it is necessary to take into account a number of requirements that must be met by a fully assembled device. How to make a brooder for chickens with your own hands? What determines the size of a chicken brooder?
DIY chicken brooder
Choice of materials for brooder
The simplest brooder for small chicks is a regular cardboard box or wooden box of a fairly large size. But, although these are the most inexpensive options, they have certain drawbacks. If we talk about a cardboard box, you need to understand that it is easily destroyed, and just as easily flammable. A wooden packing box needs additional insulation. And both of these options are inconvenient in that it is extremely inconvenient to clean them manually, so you have to make a brooder by hand, that is, build a brooder for small chickens with your own hands.
If we talk about size, then the classic version of a homemade brooder for newborn chickens is 1 m in length, and 0.5 m in height and width. Moreover, this option is suitable both for growing broilers and for ordinary chickens. But for growing broiler chickens, it is necessary to prepare a larger structure, into which they will move at the age of 1-2 weeks. However, if you make a brooder for these chicks of large dimensions, then they can live in it up to one month of age. Here are the materials used for assembly when we make a brooder for all the chicks with our own hands:
- Cardboard from cardboard boxes. A cheap material, but it is too flammable and degraded, which is why it is not always suitable. Its only plus is its low price.
- Plastic. Plastic crates are used by some farmers, but they have some drawbacks. First, plastic can start to melt when heated continuously. Secondly, it does not always keep heat well, and good, dense and durable plastic is not cheap to buy.
- Metal box. The main advantage of such a material is its durability, although you need to make sure that the metal will not oxidize from constant exposure to wet fumes. Among the shortcomings, it should be noted that the metal box is not warm enough, and it requires additional heating and an insulation system.
- Wooden box. The best option that you can do with your own hands. Quite inexpensive, with decent thermal insulation, and even a novice craftsman can work with wood.
After choosing the material, you must first prepare a drawing, and along the way, decide on the dimensions of the structure, then you should make sure that all the necessary materials and tools are available, after which you can start assembling and make a brooder for all-aged chickens with your own hands. There is one more recommendation here: you cannot assemble a too complex and large structure, which then still cannot be used. Better to make simpler, more reliable brooders for successful rearing of chicks, which will also be easy to handle.
Start building a brooder
In this room, farmers keep both broilers and regular chickens. But you need to know that a brooder for small broilers in its design is no different from other similar designs. The size of the box is calculated according to the following principle: a room with a volume of 0.5 cubic meters is enough for 100 chickens. Moreover, the height is always equal to half a meter. Well, for fifty kids, the already described model is used: a meter in length and half a meter in height and width. Given this density, it is not difficult to calculate the dimensions.
The first step in creating brooders for the mass rearing of chickens is to prepare drawings of the finished design. If you have the skills of a draftsman, you can draw them yourself or print them on a printer. It is advisable to look at the video of what the typical drawings look like and prepare everything in exactly the same form, then you need to start making the box. The manufacture of a brooder for small chickens with their own hands begins with the assembly of the frame. We will consider the classic wooden version, which is most convenient for most farmers.
Frame for brooder
How to make a spacious chicken brooder? The frame for the brooder should be made of sturdy wooden slats or beams. Here it must be borne in mind that the assembled creation must withstand the weight of the entire structure, drinkers, feeder and chickens. You also need to treat the tree with a composition against parasites and odors, but you need to use a mixture that will not harm small chickens. All parts of the frame must be made from the same type of wood so that they can withstand the same load. Too expensive wood is also not worth taking: it is not beauty that is important, but functionality.
It is not difficult to calculate how many rails are required to make a frame. A brooder for 50 chicks needs eight strips of one meter and four strips of half a meter. In terms of dimensions, everything must be observed with millimeter precision. An error of even 1 centimeter will lead to a skew, which may cause cracks or the box will become unstable. Legs need to be made of four-meter slats. In the middle, 2 meter and 2 half meter slats will be attached to them (they will be the base for the floor).
From above, the last 4 slats are fixed, on which the box lid is installed. Everything should be connected with screws or self-tapping screws. If it is planned to make a tray for collecting droppings in a brooder, then there should be 4 more racks. It is necessary to make another 2 meter and 2 half meter slats. They are fixed under the base for the floor so that there is a gap into which the pallet will enter. And the floor itself in this case must be made of a fine mesh, on which the chicks will walk.
Brooder walls and doors
After the frame has been assembled, it is necessary to attach the walls and the roof to it. As already mentioned, the bottom should be made of mesh and a removable tray. And here it is worth repeating one recommendation: although it is not difficult to build a brooder, it is useful to look at the photos and videos of how professionals assemble it with their own hands. But it must be remembered that different materials require different investments and differ in both cost and durability. For wood, it is best to use dense plywood with a thickness of 10 mm.
The walls are made of solid sheets of plywood so that unnecessary cracks do not appear. If there is no plywood, then you can take chipboard or a regular board.But the manufacture of walls from boards is somewhat more difficult, since they are more difficult to fit together. And all chicks, both chickens and quails, are vulnerable to drafts - they are always harmed by such unaccounted ventilation, so the walls are usually made not of boards, but of solid panels of DSV, fiberboard or plywood. But before making the walls, you need to decide where the doors will be located.
Making brooder doors
In the vast majority of cases, the doors are made on the side or on top of the structure. In some situations, they are not done at all, but this case will be considered below. Doors are usually made as follows: 2 sashes are assembled from plywood or boards in the form of a frame. When closed, they should fit snugly against the frame, leaving no gaps. They are attached to special hinges, which are usually purchased at a hardware store. The design of these loops is too complex to be made at home. Then a mesh is attached to the mesh, after which it is sometimes covered with plexiglass or polycarbonate.
In order for the bird to feel comfortable in the cage, and its maintenance is not complicated by unnecessary injuries, there should not be any sharp protrusions, therefore the cage is made so that the attachments are outside. This somewhat spoils the appearance of the structure, but it protects the chicks from unnecessary injuries. This applies to both brooders for chickens and those made for quail.
For both day old and week old chicks, it is important normal ventilation... When the humidity in the room becomes too high and unpleasant vapors accumulate, this has a bad effect on health. In order not to waste extra time on treatment and to simplify the maintenance of babies, it is necessary to think in advance about ventilation. The simplest option is that the door is not completely closed with plexiglass and a small gap is left on top. And sometimes a hole is made in the lid, through which the fumes will come out.
Further arrangement of the premises
After the body has been assembled, you should think about how to make the heating and lighting of the brooder. Usually for these purposes are used infrared lampsthat provide warmth and can light up the box. Some people adjust the temperature empirically. Before planting chickens or quails, they install lamps and check what they give the temperature, then they change the number of lamps, if necessary. On the other hand, there are special devices, relays, with which they carry out the setting.
There is another simple scheme that allows you to simplify ventilation and room heating... A large hole is made in the lid of the box, through which all vapors come out of it, and lamps for heating are installed along its edges. You can also connect a power adjustment device to them. If you install a sufficiently sensitive thermometer inside, then you can easily change the temperature to the desired level, and you can also save on doors by simply making them solid, without windows.
Installation of drinkers and feeders
Both chicks and quails will need drinkers and feeders that they cannot turn or stain. In particular, drinker often it is a stable saucer, in which there is a bottle of water turned upside down. Drink comes from the bottle as needed, and the vessel itself is often made in the form of a trapezoid with a wide base. Then it is extremely difficult to turn it over. Well, a strong fine-mesh mesh without sharp edges does not allow you to get into it with your feet.
Here's how a chicken feeder is made:
“Little chicks always strive to sprinkle the food, trample it, and then mix it with the droppings. Moreover, many of them end up hungry, so it is necessary to make the feeder at such a height that the chickens can eat from it, but they could not get in. From above, it is covered with an inclined lid, so that there is a gap into which the beak would crawl.At the same time, the feeder itself is also made inclined so that feed from it constantly pours out towards this slot. Then it will be convenient for the chicks to eat, and the food will not be wasted. "
Conclusion
A brooder for chickens is not easy to make. This requires a certain skill and investment from the farmer. But many materials can be obtained practically for nothing: from old boxes, broken furniture and the like. But the benefits of the assembled structure can hardly be overestimated. When using an incubator, a brooder is almost the only place where chicks can be properly kept.