Do-it-yourself chicken brooders for home. How to make a brooder for raising chickens with your own hands. Disadvantages of using cardboard boxes

Excessive heating for chicks is unacceptable, therefore useful device there will be an automatic thermostat. Heating is usually carried out by one or two ceramic infrared lamps. If they are missing, they can be replaced with ordinary incandescent lamps. Don't forget to attach a reflector on top to prevent heat from dissipating to the sides.

In the first 2 weeks of life, chickens need 24/7 light mode. Then duration daylight hours gradually decreases to 14–17 hours for broilers and to 8 for laying hens. If there is not enough light, the young animals will develop more slowly, if there is too much light - . To illuminate a brooder with the specified standard sizes, one 60 W incandescent lamp or its energy-saving equivalent is sufficient. During cool periods, you can close the mesh door from the outside plywood sheet.

Feeders are placed in regular or bunker type, to pull them out you will have to cut an additional slot in the wall. The advantage of such feeders is the ability not to disturb the chicks while feeding. To water chicks, it is better to buy drinking bowls with a sensitive nipple and a drip eliminator. In an ordinary plate or container, chicks can drown.

Nipple drinkers with drip eliminators will also help maintain an optimal level of humidity in the room. Chickens need air humidity of 60-70%. To prevent it from increasing, you need to pour out the water from the drip catchers in a timely manner, remove droppings, and the remains of wet food. The room must be ventilated.

Brooder from the drawing

To make a long-lasting brooder, you can make metal frame from equal angle dimensions 25x25x4 mm, welded together. Make the floor from frames and mesh with a cell size of 10x10 mm. The mesh can be secured between the frames with a screw connection. Cut and bend the pallet from stainless steel sheet. Cut the walls from 10 mm moisture-resistant plywood and cover the frame with metal screws. IR lamps are mounted on the top wall, the thermostat is on the front. A polycarbonate viewing window needs to be embedded into the front wall. Feeders and drinkers are placed inside the cage or hung on the side walls.

Growing poultry- quite a profitable business if you approach it wisely. Most often grown at home chicks, ducklings and goslings. But you can raise both turkey poults and guinea fowl. It all depends on the desire and capabilities of the farmer. Many people buy chicks at markets and poultry farms, but it is best to raise young ones yourself from eggs using an incubator. To do this, you just need to purchase eggs, place them in an incubator and set the necessary parameters for temperature, air humidity, and lighting. Soon the first chicks will begin to hatch.

When chickens (ducklings, goslings) are still small, they are very susceptible to infections and temperature changes. The first weeks of the life of young animals is the most important time for the poultry owner. Chicks that survive and remain healthy from birth are more likely to grow into healthy, strong birds. To make babies without a hen feel comfortable, it is recommended to make a brooder with your own hands - a device for raising young poultry, or a “bird nursery”.

Rules for raising newborn chicks

Newborn chicks and ducklings are born very small and helpless. But they grow quickly and gain weight (especially broiler chickens), so the home for babies should be spacious . Chick brooder - ideal option. When raising young animals, keep the following in mind:

Description of the brooder and its purpose

Brooder is, essentially, a kind of nursery for chickens. Of course, you can purchase such equipment in specialized stores, but it will be much cheaper to make it yourself. You can make it from polycarbonate and other available materials. In poultry farming, a brooder is usually called a room for raising young birds, equipped in accordance with the needs of the bird. The air temperature, humidity and light intensity in the brooder can be adjusted. This is why such a “nursery” is needed:

Differences between a professional brooder and a homemade one

Professionals say that chicks that have been raised with a brood hen are better equipped to survive and are already partially adapted to environment. Such chickens can be kept in an ordinary box, and they will grow by leaps and bounds (of course, subject to proper feeding and infection prevention).

But “incubator” chicks are not at all adapted to life outside the incubator, so such babies must spend the first weeks of life in a nursery. Statistics show that the survival rate of chicks raised in a brooder is much higher than the survival rate of chicks that spent the first weeks of life in a cardboard box or other makeshift home.

With specially equipped nurseries, young animals grow much faster. The main thing is to maintain an optimal microclimate inside the brooder. If the air is too dry, it becomes difficult for the chicks to breathe. Too humid air can cause babies to get dangerous infections. respiratory tract, and such diseases usually lead to mass mortality of young animals. When too low or, conversely, too high temperature When exposed to air, the chicks lose their appetite, become lethargic, and their growth and weight gain slow down significantly. The same thing happens with a lack or excess of lighting. These parameters need to be changed periodically, depending on the weather, time of day and month.

How to make a “nursery” for chicks

The size of a homemade chicken house can vary depending on the number of chicks. Often, when there are few chicks, poultry farmers make a warm “house” for them from an ordinary cardboard box, but such a primitive “dwelling” has many disadvantages. Previously, they even adapted for these purposes wooden boxes from under the parcels. Therefore, experienced poultry farmers who have a large flock prefer to make a full-fledged “nursery” for babies, with heating and a mobile tray for collecting litter.

The dimensions of a brooder for 100 chickens are approximately the following: length 200, width 100 and depth 100 centimeters. It is most convenient to make a multi-tiered housing for young animals, consisting of separate “apartments”, each of which contains a certain number of chicks. One compartment can be left unoccupied so that you can place it there if necessary. sick kids. The compartments should be located in such a way that the poultry farmer can freely approach each of them for a visual inspection of the young animals. As a rule, a do-it-yourself chicken nursery consists of the following elements:

• Actually a compartment, or “cell”, in which a specific number of chicks live. There may be several such cells, depending on the number of young animals;
• Heater with adjustable power for support optimal temperature air. It is desirable that this be a device similar to a fan heater, supplying either hot or cold air, depending on the settings;
• Ventilation hole;
• Automatic feeder and drinker. If there are a lot of chickens in the brooder, several feeders and drinkers can be placed in different corners;
• Litter tray, which can be easily removed from the cage for cleaning. Then the process of cleaning the brooder will be significantly simplified;
• Infrared lamp with adjustable light intensity.

The brooder must be regularly ventilated so that the chicks get into the home fresh air. After each feeding, any leftover food should be removed immediately. Chickens are susceptible to gastrointestinal infections, and they are not very picky eaters and will peck at everything. Eating stale food can lead to mass mortality of young animals. The same goes for drinking water. Before filling the drinker, the water prepared for the chickens must sit for some time and warm up to room temperature.

Features of raising chickens in a brooder

Anyone can easily make a 150-bed brooder home handyman having basic concepts about the features of raising chickens early age. But babies need to be raised correctly. Many novice poultry farmers are faced with this problem: the walls of a homemade brooder very quickly become dirty because the chickens are actively defecating. The constant presence of droppings on the walls can contribute to the proliferation of dangerous pathogenic bacteria. Also, chickens kept in dirty housing have a decreased appetite and slower weight gain.

In order to solve the problem, you need to lay a strong metal or plastic tray on the floor with the walls raised by about 10 cm. Now the chickens with all the desire They won’t be able to crap on the walls. But you definitely need to put something on the pallet. You should not make bedding from sawdust: the chicks will start pecking at it and die, clogging their stomachs. It's best to use regular river sand. Kids do not perceive sand as something edible, but they enjoy bathing in it when they want to clean themselves. Periodically, as it gets dirty, the sand layer needs to be changed.

When the kids grow up and begin to roam freely outside their “nurseries”, you can install automatic feeder and a drinking bowl near the entrance to the brooder. Thus, in the house there will be extra space for older chickens, and the chicks will have an additional incentive to walk. When the young animals are still very small, it is best to place food and water near the glass part of the brooder so that the babies can bask in the sun while eating. In addition, it is convenient for the poultry farmer to observe through the glass the feeding process.

During walking, chickens should be given space near the brooder and fenced off. metal mesh so that the kids don't run away. The net should be high enough to prevent the cat from grabbing the chicks. During walking, the brooder door should be open so that the babies can return to the house themselves if the weather suddenly turns bad.

Raising chickens in a brooder is exciting activity, which a novice poultry farmer can easily handle. Main - maintain a microclimate in the brooder, in which the kids will feel as comfortable as possible. To do this, you need to have a good knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of poultry, the main features of the chicks’ body. If suitable conditions maintained, the chickens grow quickly and gain weight, delighting their owners. Also, do not forget about proper feeding of babies and regular cleaning of the home. Chickens in homemade “nurseries” grow strong and strong, and their meat has a high taste.

Attention, TODAY only!

Raising chickens is an easy and profitable business, especially if done correctly. Most poultry deaths from diseases occur precisely in the initial period of life, so it is important to provide chickens with maximum comfortable conditions contents and high-quality heating. This is what a brooder is used for.

A brooder is a special box in which conditions are created suitable for raising chicks on early stages development.

A brooder is a device for raising chickens.

Chickens and chicks of other poultry are vulnerable in the first days of their lives. Main enemy chicks - cold, which leads to hypothermia, colds and death.

The brooder protects the chicks from drafts and is equipped with a heating device that allows you to maintain the temperature at +30 and above. Thus, the brooder is able to replace the hen that warms the chicks in nature. In addition, the brooder has a feeder, drinker, sand bedding and an opening lid for access inside.

Structurally, the brooder is a box made of chipboard, boards, plastic or other materials, equipped with an electric heater, thermometer or temperature sensor, holes for ventilation, etc.

Features of a brooder for chickens

Chickens have a number of differences from chicks of other types of poultry, which determines the features in the brooder design:

Otherwise, a brooder for chickens can be the same as for another bird.

Materials and tools

The materials can be any boards, chipboard, sheet metal, foam. The best and most common material is particle board(chipboard). It is warm enough and large in area, which avoids the appearance of cracks. Flaw regular boards is that gaps form between them, which will have to be caulked to avoid drafts.

Styrofoam can be a good material. It insulates from the cold best. However, if you leave interior walls naked, the chicks will mistake the white bubbles of this material for food and peck at them, which is dangerous to their health. Therefore, the foam brooder will have to be additionally insulated from the inside (lined with cardboard, for example).

Box of sheet metal or tin retains heat too poorly and is only suitable for indoor use.

For fastening wood or Chipboard is better Just use self-tapping screws and steel brackets. The tray is made of tin and is a shallow box with sand and small pebbles (sand absorbs water well from chicken droppings, and, together with pebbles, is also necessary for their digestion). The tray must be removed from the brooder so it can be cleaned.

To secure the pallet you need wooden strips. To make a door/lid - hinges and a grille or plexiglass. A wooden, plywood or chipboard brooder needs stiffening ribs made of timber.

The tools will be a screwdriver, a saw, and, if necessary, an axe, a hammer, a drill, a pencil and a ruler. If the material is foam plastic, you can use a construction knife.

Advice. Try to use ready-made materials as much as possible. For example, instead of making a box, you can take old bedside table or box.

Standards and optimal brooder sizes

A standard chick brooder has:

• Dimensions 100*50*50 cm.
• Box shape.
• Lighting in the form of an incandescent lamp of 40 or 60 W (it can also serve as a heat source).
• The temperature inside is 20-26 degrees (in the immediate vicinity of the lamp - 33 degrees).
• "Population" of 50-60 chickens. Less is possible, but more it will be crowded, so the length and width will have to be increased according to the number of livestock.

Step-by-step manufacturing instructions

There are several options for making a brooder at home.

Option 1

Step-by-step instructions for making a brooder:

Tip: If one incandescent lamp is not enough, you can add an infrared lamp to it.

Option 2

Brooder made of boards and timber:

• We assemble frames from timber by analogy with the frames for the top and front panels in the previous version.
• Using a block, we connect the frames together to form a frame.
• We sew up the back wall and “sides” with plywood, chipboard or other material, not forgetting to make holes for electrical wiring.
• We attach a mesh to the front instead of a wall.
• We fasten the doors on top, as in option 1.

Option 3

For this, in addition to the above materials, you will need ready-made products, namely:

• Wooden box.
• Canister.
• A piece of fabric (can be old).

The assembly process begins with the installation of a frame 120 cm long, as in the previous version.

After this:

• We divide the brooder into two segments of 70 and 50 cm, respectively. The larger segment will have a window made of plexiglass or glass, the smaller one will be closed, intended for the chickens to spend the night.
• We make double walls, the distance between which is 15 cm. They should be located above the floor in the closed part. We attach holders for the canister to the walls.
• We make a frame for the window and insert glass (plexiglass).
• We make holders for the frame in the open part of the brooder and fasten the frame through the hinges. This way the window will open.
• We make a side door (you can make the entire front panel open, as in the first option, or limit yourself to a small hole, to choose from).
• Between the segments we make a screen of fabric.
• We fill the space between the walls in the closed part with peat, make a double lid above the canister (by analogy with the walls), the space in which is also filled with heat-insulating material.
• Install the canister with hot water and close it with a lid.

From time to time you will have to change the water in the canister.

Advice. If there is an incandescent lamp in the brooder in addition to the canister, the fabric may ignite upon contact with it. Take this into account when designing.

In the video, a farmer talks about how to properly make a brooder for raising chickens.

Thus, a brooder is a box for raising chicks. A good brooder should be dry, protected from drafts, but ventilated, and have an internal air temperature of at least 20 degrees. The brooder can be made from old furniture, boxes or assembled from scratch from existing materials (best from plywood or chipboard).