Brooder room

[Dennis Heltzel]

Here is a commercial batter brooder though Russ got his from Dickey, same idea though.

Dickey makes and sells incubators, but I don't think he sells brooders(?).

He does make and sell brooders. I got a flyer about them in one of the purchases I made from hem, but it's not on his website, which in 2016 practically means it does not exist, LOL.

[Max Strawn]

How does the battery box work?

It works ok but it's not what I was hoping for. The bottom brooder is hard to work with since it is so low to the floor. The chicks sling their food everywhere and make a mess. When removing chicks, you have to use a small fish net to reach them at the the back of the brooder. If they had put the sliding door on the side instead of the front, you might be able to reach all the chicks by hand. It's convenient and easy to clean, but expensive. I could have built it myself to suit for less than half the price but I needed something quick.

[Suki]

http://dickeyincubators.com/hatcher.htm

5 Tray hatcher	Hatcher, w/dual wafer thermostat & TRH 158 hygrometer	$509.25	UPS
5 Tray hatcher	Hatcher, w/electronic thermostat & digital hygrometer	$586.20	UPS

[Jeffery Vance]

John we did you pursue the thermostat control for your heat lamps?

[John W Blehm]

John we did you pursue the thermostat control for your heat lamps?

I said The floor brooder and heat lamps are also operated from thermostats.  Well I searched online to find what I wanted and bought them on Amazon.com.
Lux WIN100 Heating & Cooling Programmable Outlet Thermostat
They've worked out very well.

[Russ Blair]

Ok, the Michigan winter is setting in so I did some fishing on some nice winter projects. So I figured I would bump this up with me getting my first setting ready to go in. There's a couple spring shows and I have a critical number of breeders so for peace of mind I want a few chicks on the ground.

[Russ Blair]

John I was wondering on your brooders (on legs) how hard is it to clean and disinfect the wire bottom? I am going to build a couple, which mine will be a table top version based off dimensions of a 36"x30" rabbit hutch tray that easily purchased through TSC. It appears your wire bottom is fixed and not removable? I was thinking of making mine where it would slide out in order to wash and disinfect it. Perhaps it's not really necessary? Just wondering what problems if any you might of had or would recommend.

[John W Blehm]

John I was wondering on your brooders (on legs) how hard is it to clean and disinfect the wire bottom? I am going to build a couple, which mine will be a table top version based off dimensions of a 36”x30” rabbit hutch tray that easily purchased through TSC. It appears your wire bottom is fixed and not removable? I was thinking of making mine where it would slide out in order to wash and disinfect it. Perhaps it’s not really necessary? Just wondering what problems if any you might of had or would recommend.

I have a wire brush with a scraper blade on the backside that I use to clean dried droppings from time to time and after the hatching season.  It works best to scrape the dried droppings from the bottom side of the hardware cloth.  This loosens them and then a use a shop vac to clean up.  I don't disinfect though.  Chicks build immunity to Cocci, when they are exposed to small amounts of it.

[Russ Blair]

Thanks

[Samantha Voges]

I am loving this post! So many ideas! I only hatch small minuscule amounts in comparison to you guys and have a brooder downstairs in our storage room that a friend made with the plastic liner from the bucket of a bucket truck and it serves the purpose well but the amount of dust that's accumulating down there is crazy! Does anyone have any ideas for controlling it!? I've been thinking about strapping an air filter to the back of a box fan and maybe that would help control it but I'd love to hear your guys thought!

[Russ Blair]

Not sure about your fan idea Sam? It might be worth a try and let us know how it works? I know a lot of people swear by using play sand instead of wood shavings for the bedding. Supposedly it doesn't cause as much dust as the wood shavings? Unfortunately I haven't tried it so can not testify to its potential.

[John W Blehm]

If the dust is from wood shavings I'll go with the sand idea Russ mentioned.  With any poultry there will be a problem with poultry dust/dander...not to be confused with the poultry dust powders used to treat mites/lice on birds.  This dust/dander can cause allergies to flair up and disease, so I would suggest not keeping chicks in the house beyond a week of age at the most.  If you have a forced air furnace it can spread the dander throughout the house and the filters should be changed often.
In my hatchery room I have a few brooders, but they are only used to house newly hatched chicks for 3-4 days, for LF, and up to a week for bantams.  There is dust in the hatchery from the hatchers as chicks hatch, but all the surfaced would be covered if I left the chicks in that room longer.  They then go out onto wood shaving on the floor in my brooder room, where the dust/dander is all over the place.  A respirator should be worn in brooder rooms like this and I turn on the exhaust fan when I'm cleaning the room.

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. 

[Suki]

Temple da Silva has had better luck than me with sand instead of shaving, but that may because she just has bantams.  Now that I have some banty's I've used it with them and it does work well...or at least better than for LF.  In the latter case, the sand gets too wet and heavy, so I dropped it from them.


Sue

[Temple DaSilva]

I did use sand not but for growing out chicks in our basement before it was warm enough here in CT to put them outside.  I always had shavings in the brooders to start.  And I had dust, dust, and more dust!  I'm not sure how much was chick dander versus sand or shavings dust.  What we ended up doing was building a room in the basement that could be totally closed off.  I switched back to shavings even in the next-step-past-brooder pens and bought a residential room air filter.  It's probably a bigger job than the filter was meant for I clean it frequently.  The containment and the air filtration really helped.

Another breeder friend of mine says if you go with the animal bedding wood pellets (like for horse stalls), it will cut down even more on the dust.  But as I have bantams, it seems like it would be a difficult substrate for them, especially just starting out.

-Temple DaSilva
Connecticut

[Suki]

Another breeder friend of mine says if you go with the animal bedding wood pellets (like for horse stalls), it will cut down even more on the dust.  But as I have bantams, it seems like it would be a difficult substrate for them, especially just starting out.

-Temple DaSilva
Connecticut

They are recommending equine pellets for cats btw, so I'm going to try it with my bantams this week.  I agree with the dust.  It's a horror.  I have a HEPA air cleaner running full time to keep the air clean particularly during the winter.