Build Your Own Chick Brooder – Instructions
Useful Information: Breeders’ Resources (covers everything from handfeeding to potential breeding / chick problems) … Incubation Information … Information on Housing Chicks, Temperature Requirements, etc. … Caring for Poultry Chicks from Day One to Independence
Relevant Tools / Products: Egg Candling Devices … Full-spectrum Lights … Nesting Boxes … Feeding Formulas and Feeding Utensils … Need Eggs? Suppliers of Hatching Eggs (many will ship!) for a listing of egg suppliers in the United States and United Kingdom
What you will need (as seen on the graphic to the right):
- Cord, dish, product-packing box, three-wavelength 20W bulb, socket, newspaper for lining the brooder
- A low and heavy dish is good (to prevent water from spilling even if the chick steps on it.)
- A bulb, a socket, and a cord can be purchased at a hardware store.
Open the box and make a hole as indicated on the graphic:
Caution: Be sure to use a three-wavelength 20W bulb. If you use a bulb over 20W, temperature goes up, possibly killing the chick or causing a fire.
Tip: Refer when making a hole.
No. 4 = bulb; No. 1, 2, 3, 5 = air holes
Very cold place: Make a hole only at No. 1
Cold place: No. 1, 2 Warm place: No. 1, 2, 3
Very warm place: No. 1, 2, 3, 5
Insert the screw of the bulb in the hole inside the box and then put the socket outside the box and fasten it.
Caution: Be sure to install the bulb without putting a plug in a socket.
Or you can get a shock.
Cover the bottom with newspaper, place the dish in the corner and add a little water
Caution: If there is too much water and a chick falls into water, its feathers will get wet and it can die of loss of body heat. If this happens, dry the feathers with a hair dryer, etc.
About a day after the chick hatched, place it in the box and close the cover.
Put the plug in the socket and turn the light on.
Tip: About two weeks after a chick hatched, it has well-grown feathers and can be removed from the brooder and kept in a cage.
