Brooder room

[John W Blehm]

Here are some photos of my brooder room I started using a couple years ago.  By sharing these ideas that are built on my experiences, hopefully others will benefit.
The room is close to 12' square and has 1" Styrofoam insulation under the OSB.  I built an angled wall inside to keep the chicks away from the entrance door to the room and allow space to keep a barrel of feed and extra wood shavings.
If the room gets too hot an attic style exhaust vent, working off a thermostat, sucks out the heat.  The vacuum pulls open the shutters on the louvered vent in the door to draw in fresh air.   

[John W Blehm]

The floor brooder and heat lamps are also operated from thermostats.

[Suki]

Very nice setup.  I have a much smaller one, but then we hatch in far different quantities.  I have heard of "brooder" boxes something like an incubator, I don't understand how they work or how hard they would be to clean.  Your John, looks rather simple to scrub out.

PS.  I forgot to add, that a friend of mine, a traditonal cattle farmer in OK, uses 100 gallon drums for her brooder.  They carve out a side, put in holes and on the other side made a screen.  Fran claims it works like magic.  I'll have to ask for a pic next time we speak.

[John W Blehm]

Very nice setup.  I have a much smaller one, but then we hatch in far different quantities.  I have heard of "brooder" boxes something like an incubator, I don't understand how they work or how hard they would be to clean.  Your John, looks rather simple to scrub out.

The homemade red floor brooder is similar to the gas and electric galvanized floor brooders of long ago...maybe they are still in production.
A box brooder would be like the one on the yellow table in the photo below. 
To the right of it is a homemade box style brooder.  I used to have more of these before dedicating that room to brooding. 
There are also stack type brooders.  I had an old Sears unit on wheels that looked like 5 box type brooders stacked on top each other.

[Suki]

Yes I've seen those old tyme ones advertised.  How is yours heated?  Or is just the chicks?

[Max Strawn]

I recently purchased this GQF battery brooder set. Each one has its own heater and thermostat. They each have a tray for droppings that slides out for easy cleaning. I'll be putting the first batch of chicks in it this evening...

[John W Blehm]

I recently purchased this GQF battery brooder set. Each one has its own heater and thermostat. They each have a tray for droppings that slides out for easy cleaning. I'll be putting the first batch of chicks in it this evening...

NEW!  It is the same style "battery" brooder as the Sears unit I had, but mine was really old already when I bought it.

[Max Strawn]

Yeah, they don't make them like they used to. Some parts are a little flimsy for me. It's light weight and parts are easily replaced if broken. But that was probably their plan. ( Easily broken, easily replaced.) 

[John W Blehm]

What I didn't like about the battery and box brooders is I had to replace the newspapers daily that I used to line the dropping pans.  They work great for chicks up to about a week old, but after that the chicks were bigger with more and bigger droppings.  Now I move the chicks out of the brooders, in the hatchery, as soon as possible.  The LF chicks go in the brooder room after 2 or 3 days and the bantams at about 6 days, so they are moved out before the next weekly hatch.

[Max Strawn]

How many chicks do you keep at one time in your brooder room? Do you have it partitioned for different age groups? I'm going to try using shavings in the drop pans instead of paper. Hopefully it will keep the smell down a little longer...

[John W Blehm]

When in full swing there will be hundreds of chicks in the brooder room, from a couple days old to maybe 6 weeks old.  No partitions.  More chicks go in each week and in a month or so I'll start pulling out the older ones to go out into a coop in the chicken barn.  In the brooder room many of the youngest chicks spend a lot of time under the floor brooder.
The 2 box brooders, on 2 by 4 legs, in the hatchery have deep dropping pans for wood shavings and they work great.  I just sprinkle more shavings on top as needed and don't have to clean them until the end of the hatching season.

Materials needed:
(4) Legs, 2x4s (actual size 1 ½"  x 3 ½") x 48" (may be shorter if using pre-cut studs)
(1) Top Back, 7/16" OSB, 48" x 10"
(1) Door - Top Front, 7/16" OSB, 48" x 16"
(3) Hinges, 2" or whatever
(1) Front, 7/16" OSB, 51" x 10"
(2) Supports - bottom, 1x4 (actual size ¾" x 3 ½" or 3 5/8) x 51"
(1) Back, 7/16" OSB, 51" x 16"
(1) Bottom, 7/16" OSB, 48" x 27"
(2) Sides, 7/16" OSB, 25" x 16"
(4) Supports – inside front & back, 1x4 (could even use 1x3) x47"
(4) Supports – inside on sides, 1x4 or 1x3 x 23 ½"
(1) Support – inside divider, 1x4 or 1x3 x 23 ½"
(1) Window on top – acrylic, ¼" (or whatever) x 6" x 24" (I added a couple more in front, later, for short kids to peek in)
(1) Support – door, 2x4 x 45 ½"
(1) Droppings Pan, galvanized, 6" x 26 ½" x 46 ½"
(1) 33" Brooder Heater, #5040 thru Cutler's Supply
(3) Pan Slides, 1x4 or 1x3 x 26 ½"
(1) Hardware Cloth, 24 ¼" x 46 ¾"
(3) ¼" x ¾" Wood Strips - sides, 25" long
(2) ¼" x ¾" Wood Strips – front & back, 45 ½" long
(1) ¼" x ¾" Wood Strip - center, 23 1/2 " long
A bunch of 1" drywall screws

[Schroeder]

How many chicks do you keep at one time in your brooder room? Do you have it partitioned for different age groups? I'm going to try using shavings in the drop pans instead of paper. Hopefully it will keep the smell down a little longer...

Have you tried the pine pellets intended for horse stalls?  They work very well.  Might be cost prohibitive on a larger scale though.
Duane

[Max Strawn]

I'll give them a try. The drop pans are shallow so the pellets might not make such a mess. Thanks for the tip. 

[Russ Blair]

I have to quit looking at John's post. Every time I am like Oh I need one of those lol. Seriously John it is another great idea. Thanks for posting the pictures to give me more ideas lol

[Max Strawn]

When in full swing there will be hundreds of chicks in the brooder room, from a couple days old to maybe 6 weeks old for the bantams.  No partitions.  More chicks go in each week and in a month or so I'll start pulling out the older ones to go out into a coop in the chicken barn.  In the brooder room many of the youngest chicks spend a lot of time under the floor brooder.

That's a great idea. I didn't think about installing a floor brooder to give the younger chicks a place to escape from the older ones.. I have a brooder room that is 6ft x 12ft. In the past I have only kept chicks in there that were a few weeks apart. Having that floor brooder will cut down on the number of smaller brooders to maintain. So it looks like I'll be visiting the hardware store again for floor brooder materials... Thanks John No really, Thanks!