Chicken Brooder Ideas for Your First Flock of Backyard Chickens
There is no shortage of chicken brooder ideas on the internet. But if you’re here, you have some questions and I’d love to help.
I’ll be sharing a simple set up that works for any backyard chicken keeper and especially first time chicken keepers – – like me!
What is a Chicken Brooder?
A brooder is heated location to raise your baby chicks. Most beginners don’t have a mother hen, so we have to create the ideal environment for raising chicks by creating a brooder set up.
Ideas for a chicken brooder can vary from DIY’ing something out of wood, a plastic tote, large cardboard box, animal pen, etc.
Plastic totes are a bit too small, in my opinion. Chicks grow fast (double their size in a week) and need space to move around.
Large cardboard boxes are a great idea, and super economical. You can actually tape a few together as the chicks grow to allow for more elbow room.
DIY’ing something out of wood is a great option if you have the time/inclination, and a suitable location for its placement.
That brings us to an animal pen. A large puppy playpen to be exact! That’s what we use and we love it. In fact, it’s in storage now and will be reused in a few years when we get more baby chicks.
Equipment Ideas for Your Chicken Brooder
These are the best supplies (in my opinion) to keep your chicken brooder spacious, warm, clean, and affordable.
Brooder Box
I love our large puppy playpen turned brooder box. This is the one I have and it’s perfect. For reference, it’s about 4 feet wide. We raised 4 chickens with lots of space for movement and growth. By the time they hit 6 weeks, they had enough room to keep them healthy, but they certainly needed, and wanted, to get outside.
The playpen is cute and cleans up beautifully! A tip I would add for anyone looking for ideas on chicken brooders – – use a drop cloth (or similar material) under the playpen. The bottom of the playpen is nylon and wipes easily. I like knowing the chicks have an extra layer of warmth under them with the drop cloth.
Should any substance leak through (hasn’t happened), the drop cloth will protect the flooring underneath.
The Downside of Playpens for Chicken Brooders
The only drawback of a dog playpen is all of the mesh. Now, the mesh is awesome for air circulation! That was great.
However, the AC created a draft that swept through the mesh. A simple solution was to place some cardboard around the mesh walls to keep the draft out. It worked.
Even with this drawback, the playpen is still my favorite brooder option. I just want you to know that drafts can be an issue depending on your house.
Brooder Litter
Litter is used to absorb odor and liquid. Namely, poop.
For the first week of life, I lined the bottom of the playpen with these puppy pads. They were then covered with a layer of paper towels. You can easily swap out messy paper towels for clean ones, or just throw a clean paper towel over a dirty one when time is short. It worked perfectly!
When the chicks were about 1 week old I could see them start to scratch at the ground in search of bugs (instincts are incredible!).
I continued to line the bottom of the playpen with the puppy pads and then I spread a layer of this hemp bedding on the puppy pads.
Now a warning about hemp…it may give you sticker shock! It’s not cheap. If I was raising my chicks in an unfinished basement or a heated garage, I’d probably just use inexpensive pine bedding. But, as our chicks were kept in our dining room (yep, you heard that right), it was incredibly important for the brooder to be clean — no smell and dust free. And hemp is the clear winner!
Clean up is quick…roll up the puppy pads with all the litter and paper towels wrapped into one. They get tossed and a new, clean batch is added.
Heat Source
There’s lots of talk about heat lamps/bulbs or heat plates. After loads of research, I decided a heating plate was the best option for us.
I use this brooder heating plate. It has adjustable legs so you can keep one side higher than the other. This allows different sized chicks to get the right warmth they need. It also allows the chicks to get closer or further from the heat source.
My heating plate does get hot to the touch. You can’t leave your hand on it for long. The chicks will stand or lay under it. Sometimes they are half in and half out. I’ll use it again for future chick generations.
I’ve heard great things about the Brinsea heating plate. It’s more expensive, though. But, it’s something to keep in mind.
Food and Water Dispenser
I use a chick feed base that I got at Tractor Supply for a few dollars. I screw a mason jar in, turn it over, and have a feeder. The food gets dumped out, scratched out, and wasted. I haven’t seen anything that doesn’t waste food. So unfortunately I have no great ideas here for you. But it gets the job done and didn’t cost much. This is a similar one if you don’t have a feed store nearby.
If by chance you’ve found a no waste food dispenser, I’d love to know!
I love this water dispenser by Rent A Coop. There are 2 nipples included – – one for newly hatched chicks and one for 1 week and older chicks. The water stays clean and the chicks learned instantly how to use it by gently tapping their beaks against the water nipple.
We screwed a few pieces of wood together to raise it up off the floor.
Simple Chicken Brooder Set Up
These simple ideas are the basics for an easy brooder set up that works. I’ve been very happy with this and plan to reuse the set up for future flocks.
The girls have loved hanging out with the chicks as they’ve grown. I wouldn’t change a thing!
Let me know if you have any questions about ideas for your chicken brooder.
If you’re still deciding what breeds of chickens to get, you can check out our picks of the friendliest backyard chickens here.
Thanks for visiting and I hope you’ll join me here again!
