Easy, Collapsible Chick Brooder

As the chick brooding season began this spring, I told my husband it was time to build a chick brooder.  I came up with the design, and he did the construction.

Before this, we've brooded several batches of chicks in cardboard boxes, but it's hard to find them in a large enough size.  Our heat lamp is pretty strong and the chicks need a big brooder to make sure they have room to move away from the heat lamp.  Another problem with cardboard box brooders is that they disintegrate when wet, so if the chicks repeatedly spill their water, your box won't last long.

I wanted a brooder that was large enough to comfortably house as many chicks as we were ever likely to have at one time, but it needed to be custom sized to the space where we wanted to keep it (the middle of our bathroom, where it is warm and safe from our 6 cats).  Plus I wanted it to be collapsible so that it would be easy to disassemble and store flat when not in use.

Here's what we came up with:

Here are the sides and bottom of what will become a plywood box.  Our brooder is 5' long by 2.5' wide by 2' high.

Then Ken added a framework of 2x2s around the plywood bottom and up the sides of the end pieces.

After that, he drilled holes through the plywood sides and 2x2 frame and attached the sides using bolts.

 When we're done using the brooder for the year, all we have to do is unscrew the nuts, remove the bolts, and all the brooder pieces come apart so that they can be stored flat, taking up much less room in the off season.

 Here is the new brooder all set up and ready for use:

 Just in time for the new arrivals:  a brand new batch of Blue Orpington chicks we just hatched out of our incubator!

Building Nest Boxes

Ever since we moved the chickens into the big old chicken house, they've been using makeshift crates as nest boxes to lay their eggs in.  Over the weekend, Ken changed all that by building them a whole new nest box complex, completely out of surplus materials we already had lying around.

Here's what the finished project looks like:

 

Here's the first stage, building the base:

Next, with the lower dividers and base for the second level in place:

Now both levels are complete, they just need to be filled with nesting material.

 This is way more next boxes than we need for our current number of chickens, but it's a good number for the maximum number of chickens we're ever likely to want to keep in this chicken house.  Better too many nests than too few!

The chickens weren't too thrilled with having someone in their house doing carpentry for two days, and they were a little skeptical at first of the new Apartment Complex O' Eggs.  But they've been curiously examining the new structure all day, and based on the two eggs I just found, nicely placed in one of the nests, I guess they've decided that they approve.

New Chickens

We got 10 new Buff Orpington chickens from Gregory Poultry today.  They are lovely 5-month old pullets, almost old enough to start laying. 

Add those to the 4 Blue Orpingtons and Blue/Buff Orpingtons we already had, and there's obviously no way we could house them all in the little portable coop Ken built last summer.  So we did a quick patch-up job on the run-down old chicken house that was here when we bought the farm.  I think that the chicken house is at least 100 years old, and it probably hasn't had any chickens in it in about 40 years.  It needs a serious facelift and some repairs, but it's dry, spacious, and conveniently located, so it will do fine for now, until we can give it a makeover later in the summer.

I haven't taken any new photos of my pretty chickens for quite a while now.  The original 4 have grown up quite a bit since then.  The rooster, Heathcliff, is a magnificent big fellow now.

 

All the chickens are now sharing the spacious old hen house and getting acquainted with each other.  It seemed a perfect time for a little photo shoot!

 

Our First Egg

We've been waiting for months, and at last the day has arrived.  Yesterday we got our first egg from our chickens!  The hens are approximately 7.5 - 8 months old now, so I guess that's right about on schedule.  I'm not sure if we should expect very many eggs in the near future, since it's mid-November and the days are just going to keep getting shorter.  But I've read that Orpingtons do sometimes keep laying through the winter, so I guess we'll see!

Our egg is on the right, with a store-bought size "Large" egg and a penny in the photo for size comparison.

I've read that a pullet's first eggs are often tiny and misshapen, but this egg is lovely and perfect.  It's a bit smaller than the store-bought egg, but it's still a respectable size.  It's lighter-colored than the store-bought egg too.  It's exactly the beautiful pale porcelain-pink flesh tone that you'd see on the face of an expensive porcelain doll.

Next came the taste test.  I hard boiled both the eggs, and we shared them for breakfast.

 As you can see, our egg (top) has a much richer color, presumably because our chickens have access to grass and bugs and occasional scraps of fruit, instead of just chicken feed.  Our egg also had slightly more flavor and a less dry and crumbly texture to the yolk.  It also had a noticeably stronger shell.

Pretty Chickens

I just did a photo shoot with the chickens, trying to get some better pictures for my website.  I wanted more closeups of the pretty colors and textures of their feathers and faces.  Enjoy!