New Larger Brooder

As you all know our chicks were quickly outgrowing their first brooder.  We looked at several options and needed to find something for them that was big enough to get us through the end of April.  The chicks will be ready to move outdoors to their new coop in early May. We ended up making a great and cheap large brooder out of plywood and cardboard (see pictures below), which only cost us 0.51 cents.  The plywood we got from cull lumber at home depot for 0.51 cents (4 ft X 4 ft piece) and the cardboard boxes were free from Murdochs.

Step 1:  Cut cardboard boxes and place on plywood with flap fold on the edge of the plywood.

Step 2:  Staple cardboard to edge of plywood.

Step 3: Then staple cardboard to bottom of plywood.

Image by: Back Yard Farming

Step 4:  Take another cut box and overlap over the other and staple to the plywood.

Image by: Back Yard Farming

 

Image by: Back Yard Farming

 

Image by: Back Yard Farming

Image by: Back Yard Farming
Step 5:  Duct tape overlapped edges.

Image by: Back Yard Farming

Image by: Back Yard Farming

 

Image by: Back Yard Farming

Step 6:  Add chicks

Image by: Back Yard Farming

 

Image by: Back Yard Farming

 

Image by: Back Yard Farming

 

Image by: Back Yard Farming

One Chick "Flew The Coop"

We let a chick loose from it's brooder and let it roam the front lawn for a couple of minutes.  She was so cute and didn't go too far from us.

Image by: Back Yard Farming

Image by: Back Yard Farming

Image by: Back Yard Farming

Image by: Back Yard Farming

Image by: Back Yard Farming