Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens (80 page)

A battery brooder lets you keep lots of chickens in a small space.

The number of chicks you can brood in a battery depends on the dimensions and the number of tiers; a typical box holds about four dozen chicks, and a typical battery has three to five tiers. Common practice is to keep chicks in the battery for about a week, or 2 at most, then move them to roomier
housing. In any case birds must be moved from a battery brooder before they grow so tall their heads rub against the top or so big they can’t get their heads through the gates at the widest adjustment.

A battery brooder lets you keep lots of chickens in a small space.

Battery brooders are available through farm stores and poultry-supply catalogs. They’re pretty expensive, but you might get lucky and find a good deal on a used one. To operate a battery, you’ll need a draft-free but well-ventilated outbuilding where the temperature is warm and fairly steady.

An area brooder has the advantage over a box or battery in being easily expandable so you can brood more chicks at a time and they don’t outgrow the housing as quickly, if they outgrow it at all. This brooder is the style traditionally used by farmers who start chicks and grow them to maturity in a single chicken coop, barn, or other outbuilding.

The heat source, called a
hover
, is hung from the ceiling so it hovers over the chicks. The birds huddle beneath the hover to be warmed by its electric or gas heater and move away from the heat to eat and drink. The hover may be round or rectangular and may have curtains hanging around the edges to keep in heat and keep out drafts.

A hover is an economical way to brood a hundred chicks or more. The chicks are housed on a litter-covered floor in a small predator-proof outbuilding or a draft-free stall or corner of a larger building. Feeders and waterers are spaced around the outer edges of the hover where chicks can easily find them.

When you use an area brooder, you need some way to keep the chicks from wandering far from the heat source and getting chilled. A brooder guard confines chicks close to the heat, reduces floor drafts, and eliminates corners where
chicks tend to pile up and smother. Ready-made brooder guards are available, but you can easily make your own by cutting up a large cardboard box, because a brooder guard is nothing more than a 12- to 18-inch (30 to 45 cm)-high circular fence of corrugated cardboard.

An area brooder is basically a heater that hovers over the chicks and is ideal for brooding birds in the same facility where they will grow to maturity.

Run the fence at a distance of 2 to 3 feet (60 to 90 cm) around the heat source and fasten the ends together with duct tape. In 7 to 10 days, after the chicks have become fully familiar with the locations of heat, feed, and water, either remove the brooder guard or, if it’s still needed to reduce floor drafts, expand it to give the birds room to grow.

A brooder need not be an expensive commercially built affair and need not even be a permanent fixture. Many a chick has been brooded in a sturdy cardboard box, which has the distinct advantage that it may be disposed of and replaced, instead of having to be cleaned.

Another ready-made option is a galvanized tank designed for watering livestock, which is easy to hose out between uses. A light bulb or heat lamp furnishes warmth and a piece of wire mesh secured over the top provides ventilation while keeping out cats and other chick eaters. If necessary to eliminate drafts, lay a piece of cardboard or plywood across part of the top.

An extra-large plastic tote or bin makes an easy-to-clean brooder for a small number of chicks, and the snap-on lid secures them from predators. To provide heat and ventilation you’ll need to cut into the lid, which is not an easy job but may be neatly done with a utility knife and plenty of elbow grease. Hardware cloth fastened to the lid will keep out cats and other predators. A plastic tote can easily get too hot, so keep an eye on the chicks’ comfort level and adjust the heat accordingly.
Moisture also tends to collect in the bedding because it has no place to go; clean out and replace the bedding at least once a week to keep it from getting moldy.

An infrared heat lamp with an aluminum reflector and a porcelain socket, hung over a stock tank lined with litter, makes a dandy brooder.

An extra-large plastic tote, with the lid cut to provide ventilation and heat, holds about two dozen standard-size chicks for a week or 16 to 18 chicks for up to 2 weeks.

As long as you maintain the principles of security and warmth, the possibilities for brooding chicks are limited only by your imagination. Any brooder must be designed to minimize stress, since stress drastically reduces the chicks’ immunity, making them susceptible to diseases they might otherwise resist. Stress is minimized by making sure the chicks are neither too cool nor too warm; have a clean, safe environment; are provided sufficient space for their numbers; and can always find feed and water.

Stress may also be reduced by approaching the chicks from the side, rather than from the top. Commercial box and battery brooders are designed with this feature in mind. Most other brooders are designed for the convenience of the chicken keeper, who scares the living daylights out of chicks by approaching them from above — after all, most predators swoop down on baby chicks. Whenever you approach chicks from the top, the polite thing to do is talk or hum to let them know you’re coming.

A chick’s body has little in the way of temperature control, although a group of chicks can keep themselves warm by huddling together in a small space — which is why a box full of newly hatched chicks may be shipped by mail. When given sufficient
space to exercise, eat, and drink, chicks need an external source of warmth while their down gives way to feathers, starting at about 20 days of age.

Chicks tend to feather out more quickly in cooler weather, but if the air temperature is quite low, they need auxiliary heat longer than chicks brooded in warmer weather. For this reason chicks hatched in winter or early spring typically require brooder warmth longer than chicks hatched in late spring or early summer.

Start the brooding temperature at approximately 95°F (35°C) and reduce it approximately 5°F (3°C) each week until the brooder temperature is the same as ambient temperature. Within the chicks’ comfort zone, the more quickly you reduce the heat level, the more quickly the chicks will feather out.

Commercial box brooders, batteries, and hovers operate by adjustable thermostat. Most homemade setups provide heat with either incandescent lightbulbs or infrared heaters that have no thermostat.

An incandescent lightbulb is the least expensive heat source for batches of 25 to 50 chicks. If your brooding area is large enough to handle the extra heat, you’re better off using two bulbs, in case one burns out when you’re not around. Screw each bulb into a fixture with a reflector and hang it over the brooder. The heat may be adjusted two ways: by raising or lowering the fixture and by decreasing or increasing the bulb’s wattage. Start with 100- or 60-watt bulbs, depending on the size of the brooder and the number of chicks.

One 250-watt infrared heat lamp provides sufficient heat for 25 to 100 chicks. Infrared lamps with either red or clear bulbs are available at farm stores, electrical-supply outlets, and some hardware stores. A red lamp is more expensive than a white lamp but won’t burn out as quickly, and the red glow discourages picking; as long as everything looks red, truly red things won’t attract attention.

An infrared lamp gets quite hot, so use a porcelain rather than a plastic socket, because the plastic might melt. A standard brooder lamp holder has a porcelain socket, as well as a couple of stout wires bent across the front so the lamp can’t come into direct contact with bedding — for instance, if the lamp falls — or other flammables and create a fire hazard.

Hang the heat lamp by an adjustable chain, starting about 18 inches (45 cm) above the chicks. As the chicks grow, raise the lamp to reduce the heat. A general rule is to raise the lamp about 3 inches (7.5 cm) each week.

Be especially watchful with chicks confined in a small brooder, since an infrared lamp can get pretty hot and you don’t want the chicks to be cooked alive. As they get older and require less heat, give them more room so they can move away from the heat, or switch from infrared lamps to incandescent bulbs.

A safer infrared option is an Infratherm heating panel, which is more expensive than an infrared heat lamp but uses so much less electricity that in the long run the panel turns out to be considerably cheaper. A panel directs heat only beneath itself, making it easier for chicks in a small area to move away to maintain their comfort level. Panels come in various lengths and, unlike light bulb and heat lamp fixtures, are entirely sealed, making them much easier to clean and sanitize.

Theoretically, brooder temperature is measured with a thermometer placed 2 inches (5 cm) above the brooder floor (and at the outer edge of a hover), but you shouldn’t need a thermometer. Just watch the chicks, and adjust the temperature according to their body language.

Chicks that aren’t warm enough
— due either to insufficient heat or to draftiness — crowd near the heat source, peep shrilly, and may have sticky bottoms or outright diarrhea. In an effort to get warm while they sleep, the chicks will pile up and smother each other. Piling is most likely to occur at night when the ambient temperature drops, so in cold weather check your chicks before you go to bed, and if necessary, increase the heat overnight.

Chicks that are too warm
move away from the heat, spend less time eating, and as a result grow more slowly. They pant and try to get away from the heat source by crowding to the brooder’s outer edges, perhaps smothering one another. If the brooder is hot enough to raise their body temperature above 117°F (47°C), chicks die.

Happy chicks that are warm and cozy
wander freely throughout the brooding area, emit musical sounds of contentment, and sleep sprawled side by side to create the appearance of a plush down carpet. The sight can be dramatic to someone who has never seen chicks resting comfortably. An overnight guest once woke my husband and me early one morning, in a panic because “the chicks are all dead.” Meanwhile his commotion had awakened the chicks, and by the time we rushed back to check on them, to the astonishment of our guest the chicks were busy having breakfast.