There are lots of DIY brooder box models you can use for your day-old chicks. Before ordering your chicks you need to prepare your brooder well if you don’t want to lose any of your chicks to chills and other hazards.
It is possible to make your own inexpensive brooder which is a hundred percent safe for your chicks, durable, easy to clean and easily reusable.
Items you need to DIY a typical brooder box
- Plastic storage tote – opaque
- Thin wooden board
- 1/2 inch hardware cloth
- Nuts and bolts
- Jigsaw
- Cordless drill
- Box cutter
- Pliers
- Screwdriver
- Wire cutters
- Dowel
- Small nails and screws
What to do
You cut a window on the lid of the tote, and make sure you leave a frame of 2 inches all the way around the tote lid with a box cutter. Trim the hardware cloth with a wire cutter 1 inch larger than the window. Cut the dowl to make the miniature roosts for your chicks to rest on.
Inside your brooder, you will need chick-sized feeders and waterers. A heat lamp to keep them warm throughout until they are well feathered. Brinsea Eco glow is ideal to keep temperatures at around 95F and decrease by 5F every other consecutive week.
You can add pine shapings or chips on the floor once the chicks have figured out what is food and what is not.
Other DIY brooder box models
Appliance box
Large boxes used to package things like refrigerators, dryers and washers can be used to make a single-use brooder box. Only ensure you put a plastic lining at the bottom before putting litter and feeders because carton boxes are susceptible to moisture and might deteriorate soon.
The lining will keep moisture and makes cleaning easier. The high walls give a spacious room for your chicks to grow. A kiddie pool is a variation of appliance boxes that can be used later on as a dust bath for your chicks.
Brooder pannels
You can as well buy a disposable brooder pannels. Four panels, in the beginning, to keep chicks close to each other for warmth and you can increase as they keep growing.
Depending on the number of chicks, you can expand the number of panels up to 10.
Barnyard brooder
Bring barn style indoors with a barnyard brooder. You can paint with a variety of colors, but chose the color of your choice. IT is spacious, your chicks will appreciate the run space available inside.
Many in one
If you want to raise many flocks at once, this is the way to go. With multiple brooders on top of each other, you can raise as many chicks as you can at once. Best suited for professional chicks raisers, because they can raise as many chicks as possible for sale.
Built-in poop brooder
They can be used as brooders and brooding chicken can use it to brood. It is spacious for chicks to run around. Covered ceramic heaters are appropriate in this scenario over the lamps. The nipple watering system is preferable to allow the refilling of water from outside.
Check out the following gallery to grasp ideas about DIY brooder boxes.
If you are into DIYing for your chicks, you might want to check out our guide on DIY chicken coop and Mini chicken coop.
