DIY Brooder Box

DIY Brooder Box

January 23, 2022

(My DIY brooder box kennel.)

Baby chicks need a safe warm place to spend their first few weeks after you bring them home.  It's called a "brooder" or "brooder box". 

I finally settled on making my own brooder box out of a dog kennel. It's quick and easy to set up, inexpensive, durable, 100% safe, easy to clean and reusable. 

A dog kennel makes an inexpensive and safe brooder for your baby chicks when you first bring the home. You just need to make some alterations to it before your chicks move in!

What You Need:

• Dog kennel
• Dog kennel tray
• Duct/Scotch tape

What You Do:

1. Unfold the kennel and set it up
2. Slide in the kennel tray
3. Use duct/scotch tape to tape an inch up from the bottom of the sides of the kennel (Chicks are extremely hyper and if the kennel bars are wide enough, then they will definitely escape by sliding through, keep the tape up until the chicks are about 2 weeks old.)

Your chicks will need chick-sized feeders and waterers. Placing small stones or marbles in the waterer will ensure no unfortunate drownings. A small dish of chick-sized grit is necessary to help the chicks grind up and digest any food you feed them other than chick starter feed.  

Feed and water should be offered 24/7 for at least the first few weeks so the chicks can eat and drink as necessary. Treats such as herbs, weeds, soft scrambled eggs or mealworms can be introduced slowly once they are pullets.

A heat lamp with a clamp (and preferably with a red bulb) is needed to keep the brooder a toasty 95 degrees the first week and then 5 degrees cooler each subsequent week until the chicks are feathered out - around six weeks old - and the temperature is around 60 degrees, at which point they can be moved outside full time.

Newspaper can be too slippery for little chick feet and can cause spraddle leg, so I use several layers of newsprint covered with a sheet of rubber shelf liner for a non-slip surface of the brooder.  The shelf liner is easy to remove, rinse off and reuse.

Pine shavings or chips can be added to the floor of the brooder after the first several days once the chicks figure out what is food and what isn't (never use cedar shavings, which can be toxic). 

While you might have read it's okay and might be tempted because it seems easy, DO NOT use sand in your brooder. The chicks will eat it which can seriously deprive them of nutrients if they fill up on the sand and don't eat enough of their feed.

Even worse, sand can become sodden and stuck in their crops causing impacted crop which can kill them.  Also, the sand will 'bread' the droppings and there's a good chance they'll eat that also which can be extremely detrimental to their health.

And voila! Your baby chicks have a nice safe place to live. :)