For those of you who may be a little overwhelmed or intimidated by the higher tech methods being presented, maybe this will provide some degree of comfort. I have found that a large cardboard box, the kind that appliances are packed in, work just find for brooders. Just make sure they are not lying flat on the floor, because air needs to circulate underneath for evaporation of moisture that goes through. They can be elevated off the floor with strips of wood, old wire or plastic freezer baskets, or whatever. I cover the top with a metal grating so the cats or other predators can not get through and suspend a simple incandescent bulb mounted inside a round metal reflector, the kind you can get at any feed or farm store. I always start a new batch off with a new long-life bulb, typically 75 or 100 watt. The reflector can be raised or lowered as needed with a wire or twine attached to the handle of the reflector and fastened to a wire hook on the other end. The hook can be made from a piece of wire, and where it is hooked to the grating determines how high or low the bulb is elevated. If it is cold, I slice open a plastic feed sack (or two depending on the size of the box) and lay it over the top, weighing it down with pieces of brick or wood. Some opening must be left for ventilation, or small holes can be cut in the cardboard box. I prefer to ventilate through the top by adjusting the placement of the feed sack to allow more or less of an opening. It's crude, but it works fine.
As far as slippage to prevent leg spraddling, I first put down clean newspaper on the bottom of the box, then a 2 or 3 inch layer of pine shavings, and over that I lay strips of those blue shop towels. They are super absorbant, and the chicks don't slip on them. After the shop towels are quite dirty I remove them, because by that time the chicks do well on the clean shavings underneath. I have raised thousands of chicks this way, and don't spend much money on equipment and supplies doing it. At the end of the season the boxes can be burned, or more often than that if you have a good supply of boxes. Eliminates the storage problem too. It works for me, but maybe I'm just too cheap to spend the money on fancier equipment.
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