Instructions and photos on making a makeshift brooder for newly hatched chicks: I've brooded chicks before this, using equipment that we made for the job. But this batch of chicks arrived early; the post office called 2 days before I expected and told me they were at the airport! My equipment wasn't set up yet, and the temperatures had dipped to below freezing at night, so I decided to brood them in the house this time. I'm glad I did; it was fun and I've done it several times since!
I scrambled, and used what materials I had on hand; two cardboard moving boxes, some hay for bedding, and I did find the brooder light. I placed a couple of plastic trash bags on the floor for protection from seepage through the box (of which there was none.) I box-folded the bottom of each moving box, and slid the top of one inside the top of the other. I cut holes in the formers sides (now the top) of each box, so that I could see and reach in, and excess heat could escape.
Because I didn't have pine shavings on hand, I added hay for bedding, and placed a couple bricks on top of the "seam" where the boxes overlapped, placing a bowl of water on top of the bricks to keep it out of the litter. I set this up in advance of the arrival, making sure the light was placed at the proper height so that the temperature at floor level was 95 degrees. I brought in a few branches from the burn pile, which I trimmed for perches, and we were ready.
My husband picked up the chicks at the airport, and stopped at the feed store for grit and wood chips. I kept the hay bedding for the time being, since it was already warmed up, and changed to the wood chip bedding several days later. When the chicks arrived, I took them one by one from the shipping box and dipped it's beak in the water. Once I saw it drink, I brought out the next chick. I provided freshly ground grains for them in a metal chick feeder, and sprinkled grit over it on day 3. After about a week, I dug up a shovel full of sod and brought it into the brooder box. The chicks loved it! I've been replacing it with a fresh piece every few days. NOTE: I no longer grind grains for chicks. Visit our Chick Starter page for more information as well as recipes to make your own.
I have since used this as my prefered method of brooding chicks, without the last minute frantic-ness! I like hay best for bedding; not least of which that the chicks can safely pick at it and eat any hay seeds they find. Using pine shavings can be worrisome if the chicks try to eat it, and they often do. Disposable boxes (no cleaning a container afterwards!) and branches from the yard or orchard are my favorite pieces of equipment!
In this age where it's now easy to clone and delete parts of photographs,
and some farmers and webmasters are doing this to published photos of their livestock,
please note that all photos on this website are unaltered in any way!
Colors, conformation, etc are exactly as depicted.
However, several weeks of peeping in my house has lost its novelty and I now get those chicks outside as quickly as possible (1 or 2 weeks of age, depending on the weather) and place the same red lamp inside one of my portable arks and run an extension cord from the garage to the orchard. The first few evenings are spent shooing them into the end of the ark that has the light... "go toward the light!", but it's worth the extra effort to get them on grass and out of my house as soon as I safely can.
A tip on moving young chicks outside into a portable chicken tractor.... turn on the light at night to help you find any holes big enough to get your thumb through. Yep, they'll get out that hole. Bricks, rocks, cut firewood have all been used on our farm to plug those holes and prevent loss of chicks.
