Brooders are great for raising chicks. They are low wattage and allow chicks to sleep naturally at night. However, if you end up with more chicks then you planned on then you can run into the issue of overcrowding. This can stress the chicks out and some can even be smothered to death.
For us, we live fully on solar and can only have so many things running at any one time. We don’t normally have large batches of chicks, but one year we decided to get a larger batch. We didn’t want to buy a whole other brooder. So I built this instead . . .
**FINALLY, A Smart Coop For Chickens (CLICK HERE)**
It’s an insulated box. The brooder goes underneath it the box helps keep a larger area warm for more chicks.
Supplies include . . .
-Thick heavy duty box that’s bigger than the brooder
-Insulated bubble foil
-Clear packaging tape
The Build
- Cut the box to the max height of the brooder.
- Cut slots around each side that will allow chicks to go in and out of the box.
- Cut insulated bubble foil for each of the sides of the box. I only did the outside of the box. But if you have a thinner cardboard then you may consider lining the inside too.
- Taped along the corners with tape to secure each piece of insulation into place.
- Ready to use.
Placement- Place brooder underneath the box and set near (not in) a corner. You want to keep box 3-4 inches away from the wall. This will allow wiggle room for the chicks and help prevent smothering. I place food and water right near the entrances so they can easily eat and then go back under the brooder to get warm again.
Results
Our brooder is meant for about 25 chicks. With this expansion, we had about 60 chicks including 2 ducklings & 3 turkey poults. Sadly, we did lose two chicks, likely due to smothering, but that’s not too bad over all, and everybody else survived just fine.
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