Brooder Built!

30 Chick Brooder

It cost me getting to play a game of golf on Sunday - but it's done. The chicken brooder for this year is done (almost) and ready for the 30 Cornish Rock Cross chicks to arrive at the end of May.
There were a couple of design considerations I imposed upon myself to make sure this kept the costs down - since I would like to be eating non-certified organic - but organic, free-ranged in a big pasture pen chicken, for no more per pound than the Purdue stuff. So - the main consideration here was frugality - reuse of goods already in the shop - and scalability - meaning I want to take lessons learned this year and be able to apply them to a larger production run next year (I already have about enough "verbal" orders and interest to easily sell 100 of these guys next year).
Knowing that these little chicks are very susceptible to drafts - the sides are a full 24" so they will be comfortable in here. It's also high enough, should the weather not be cooperating when they are set to go to pasture around week 3-4 - they will be fine in here for as long as they need to be in here. I'll be building 2 sections of chicken wire "roofing" so they don't decide to leave the comfort and safety of the brooder via a jump and flap. The divider in the middle pulls right out so after a week or so when they need more room per bird I can yank the divider and they can roam more.
The base is off the concrete floor as it's built on old pallets I had laying around - the OSB kind - so the wood chips are right on the OSB (good for keeping their feet warm and off the floor). If I should need to, because of strangely cold weather in their first few weeks, I can even put a couple of light bulbs under the floor for radiant heat in addition to the brooder lamp that will be above. It's also big enough that I can employ a hover should I need to (unlikely).
Basics: Floor - 5 OSB topped pallets. Sides - 24" high OSB. Floor covering - TSC wood chips
What's left to do: Build a "roof" frame of chicken wire for both sides, place hardboard in corners to round them off (little chicks can literally stand in a corner with no way out and get too chilled and die)
Total cost so far for the brooder - $0... it's all stuff I had in the shop.

Comments

[Ginny]

Very nice! We just got our layers out of our cardboard-box brooder, but we would like to build a more substantial one for the meat birds, which we are doing soon. I like yours and I think I will incorporate some of your ideas. Thanks for sharing!
:-D

[Andy & Kelli]

No problem!
This being our first go with meat birds (whatever do you do with all those eggs - one layer would bury us in them!) I'm trying to account for cost as well as ideas that will let us scale for bird sales next year (potentially).
Thanks for stopping by - and keep eyes open for frequent updates.

[Building the chicken brooder |]

[...] chicken brooder By Andy, on May 27th, 2009 This years brooder design is quite a bit different than last years brooder design – primary due to the volume of chicks that will be arriving tomorrow.  Wanting to keep them [...]