# Once and for all... Brooder box size



## frogmama (May 17, 2014)

Hi all,

Despite lots of research, I am wondering just how much space my chicks need! I have 10 4-week old chicks (5 ISO Browns and 5 Aroucauna). Are they ok with a brooder box that is about double their footprint (if they are huddled on one side, counting feeders)? They seem ok, but I need to start hunting for a new box. Some sources say to keep them in the brooder 4-5 months but maybe that's for those being introduced to older flocks?

Separate question. I would assume its ok to brood them in their coop for now on, as long as I watch their warmth closely? I've been letting them outside in a dog crate on warm afternoons already.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

What is your climate like? That helps knowing that. Where I live I can safely brood day olds outside with a light set up as a warming station.


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## frogmama (May 17, 2014)

Central MN. It's 70-80s now during the day. (50s at night) i only let them out from under the lamp when its above 78. 


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Here is the set up I used for young chicks out in the coop. Since I bred show birds I had individual 4X4 pens. The interconnecting walls were wire. I would hang a bell lamp with a 65 red spot light from the wire about a foot off the floor. It provided a place to warm up and gave them a warm spot to sleep at night. 

That might not be possible for you if you have a single room coop with other birds populating it. 

You don't say how big their brooder is but if not big enough for ten large fowl birds its going to get very crowded very quickly.


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## hildar (Oct 3, 2013)

they are a month old, they should be fine with the 70 degree temps during the day. Just keep a heat lamp for night time.


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## frogmama (May 17, 2014)

Thank you! They are in a lined cardboard box that is about 36x24 and about 30 in. high. They seem pretty tough, relatively speaking. Common sense tells me to put them in their coop, but I'm a rookie 


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## frogmama (May 17, 2014)

Well, here is an intermediate brooder. I still need to put cardboard around the sides, but I am pretty happy with it. I had to get rid of the slightly larger box because the chickens kept getting the duct-taped plastic tablecloth off the sides/bottom and my daughter fell on the box and ripped a few corners open. I like this setup, though it still seems small. I like how the waterer is in some sideways crates, over a tray, so the water doesn't soak the shavings. (We made a hanging nipple waterer that we have to fix, but we will be able to hang that there too.

They seem to be establishing their pecking order and enforcing it, so I put a clump of grass just outside the cage to give them something to do. I hope they don't get their heads stuck in the sides, though. :/

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## hildar (Oct 3, 2013)

frogmama said:


> Hi all,
> 
> Despite lots of research, I am wondering just how much space my chicks need! I have 10 4-week old chicks (5 ISO Browns and 5 Aroucauna). Are they ok with a brooder box that is about double their footprint (if they are huddled on one side, counting feeders)? They seem ok, but I need to start hunting for a new box. Some sources say to keep them in the brooder 4-5 months but maybe that's for those being introduced to older flocks?
> 
> ...


I don't know where you live, but I have 1 month old chicks out in the coop already and I also have 1+ week old chicks 2 in a cage in the coop. They are the only ones that are still getting the heat lamp. The 1 month old's don't want it and are roosting on their own already. They can access a part of the brooder light for the 2 small games, but they don't want to be there, they want up high already.

there was a long discussion about this the other day with a group of us, and the newer folks to chicken raising believe that chicks need heat for 30 to 90 days, where they only need it for about 2 to 3 weeks. Your chicks are being brought up like production chickens when you leave them under lamps and in brooders for so long. Most hens have chicks out running around at 1 week old.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Add in the fact that cage is much too small for ten birds in either large fowl or bantam and I can see trouble with over crowding happening very quickly. It might be some of the fussing going on now.


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## hildar (Oct 3, 2013)

robin416 said:


> Add in the fact that cage is much too small for ten birds in either large fowl or bantam and I can see trouble with over crowding happening very quickly. It might be some of the fussing going on now.


True that. My 2 games, are in a 6 foot long cage, by 3 feet wide, and they still want out and they are only 1 week old. I can't imagine having as many as this lady has in my dog crate. I had 4 RIR's in there when they were little but only for bed time, days they ran all through the house. At 2 weeks they went straight to the coop in the bigger cage. Days they played inside the coop while the door was shut, but night time the hens kept an eye on them in their cage, while the hens and my 2 roosters roosted. Big old half would holler at them if they made to much noise, he was a great foster dad to all the chicks.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

If you move them to the coop how will you address their warming issues at night? Depending on the construction of your coop and whether or not its windy or wet they could still need a warm place to retreat to at night. 

I am suggesting you move them, the space they're in is just too tight. 

And I have no idea who thinks its a good idea to keep them in a brooder for months. That makes no sense at all unless temps are near zero. In dead of Winter it wasn't unusual for me to keep mine in longer but not four or five months.


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## frogmama (May 17, 2014)

Well, thank you for your input, everyone. Your answers confirmed my suspicions.  Now that the larger box had gotten crushed, we are REALLY under the gun to get that coop ready for the little gals. I was expecting we would have lost one or two by now, as I'm told it simply happens from time to time, which doesn't help with the crowding. I'm also getting fairly close to determining the roosters, which I'll post pics to confirm that too. (hopefully not my kids' 2 favorite birds  )

I'm going to put them in a hog panel pen for the days until the coop is ready. They will have plenty of room there. 

Considering the condition commercially raised chickens live in, I still think these guys are more comfortable, and healthy. But they will be in the coop within the week!


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## hildar (Oct 3, 2013)

You can place a brood lamp in the coop I have one on top of the little ones cage, however some of the heat comes out from the side of it, and the bigger chicks lay close to the little ones cage so they can get that little bit of heat. In the mornings I shut the brood lamp off because the sun shines right on the cage and warms the babies up. The older ones go up top to a shelf and sleep there and get the sun early mornings.

As for drafts, I have plenty of drafts in there 3 sides are open with just chicken wire up. However if the night will be cold. I put a blanket around the brooder cage. But the older ones are ok now with their feathers on so they don't need the lamp any more. Rain doesn't get in we have a real house roof on the coop, and huge trees behind it that block the rain. Only 1 time in the past 12 years have we ever seen rain get in there and that was when we had a tropical depression come through with winds whipping rain every which way. But the roosts stayed dry and all the hens stayed up there.


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