Monday, February 19, 2007

Mini Ohio Boooder

Baby chicks need to be kept very warm for the first weeks of their lives. Providing heat for them with heat lamps or other means is called brooding. The first week they need to have the temperature at 90 degrees F. Each week the temperature can be lowered 5 degrees.

The other day when I had plenty of other things that I was supposed to be doing, I decided to build another chick brooder. I’d been thinking about it for a while and guessed that I could build it from scrap wood and other bits of stuff I had leftover from other projects. A few years ago I built a 4’ x 4’ Ohio brooder like the one described here. It will brood (keep warm) up to 250 chicks. I brooded a batch of 75 and then a batch of 100 chicks in it. And all went fine. The main feature of this type of brooder compared to the usual heat lamps is that this type uses about ½ the electricity and is able to use regular house hold incandescent light bulbs instead of the 125 or 250 watt heat lamps.

I made this new brooder about 24 inches by 26 inches. I wanted one about ¼ the size of the original one and found a piece of ½ inch plywood 24 x 26 so went with it. I should be able to brood up 50 to 60 chicks. The sides are 1 foot wide pieces of wood and the legs are 16 inches high. I removed the wiring from my old 4 x 4 foot brooder and put it into this new one, figuring I wouldn’t be using them at the same time anyway. The cords were from old computer monitors. I had partially lined the first brooder with bubble foil insulation which I removed for this new brooder. I didn’t have enough to cover the whole inside, but remembered I did have some bubble wrap. I just took aluminum foil and covered the bubble wrap to make homemade bubble foil insulation and even found some foil tape to tape it on. This was an easier improvement over my original method of gluing the insulation on. On my fist brooder the cover sits down in the frame about an inch. On this one the cover rests on top. I actually like and recommend the first way better and wished I had done this on like that. I think it has less air gaps in the top that way.

For amusement I tested it out in a room that was 57 degrees F. With two 60 watt bulbs it was 91 degrees inside. With a 100 watt and a 60 watt bulb it was 101 degrees inside. I’m guessing that having chicks in it might raise the temperature a bit also. The reason I built it with two lamps it to have some backup if one burns out.

It was fun to make. I made it with things I already had around and now I have an excuse to get some chicks.

Note: Unlike what I did, make the legs 1 inch down from the top and make the frame the correct size for the plywood top to rest inside the frame on the legs.

brooder with cover on


brooder with cover off showing bubble foil insulation

6 comments:

  1. I like it. They can walk in and out as they like. you can easily lift the lid to access food and water. I'll be stealing your design ideas! :)

    Over on my Sugar Mountain Farm blog on the New Meat Label post you noted the use of http://NoNAIS.org under the USDA logo. Putting it there was my son Ben's (age 10) idea. Already he knows how to subtly subvert.

    I've been making more changes and updating that post. Check it out again.

    Cheers,

    -Walter

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  2. I've built one of the Ohio brooders myself to a very similar dimension for brooding up to fifty chicks at a time. I like your refinement of the removable top better than the one I built. I may modify mine to suit.

    With a good thick layer of dry shavings on top and a thick layer of dry shaving for them to hunker down into this brooder design will keep chicks alive at below freezing even if the power fails. I unwittingly turned the power off on mine with a batch of week old chicks in it last winter when it was in the twenties. Came home about ten hours later, discovered my blunder and expected to find a brooder full of dead chicks. To my amazement within ten minutes of turning the heat on again they were all running around as usual no worse for the wear. I'm glad Robert Plamondon found that old design and resurrected it.

    .....Alan.

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  3. Anonymous10:37 AM

    Hi...great post, I'm looking to build one of
    these myself. Could you pass along some dimensions on the distance from the floor to the bottom edge of the brooder (chick entrance height), Where on the inside wall (height) is the light fixture mounted to avoid any accidental chick cooking ?
    Cheers,
    Clint

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  4. The cords were from old computer monitors. I had partially lined the first brooder with bubble foil insulation which I removed for this new brooder. best insulation

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  5. Get tutorial here. I went ahead and did something similar for my new chicken farm Get Down Farm.

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  6. Get tutorial here. I went ahead and did something similar for my new chicken farm Get Down Farm.

    ReplyDelete