Make a Chicken Brooder Out of Cardboard Boxes

I agree with Dawn. This sounded like a great idea and I might try to figure one out myself but your instructions were so confusing with out pictures that I gave up even trying to read it all the way through.

Paul, I think your idea is great, but I am absolutely terrified at the idea that people will likely put this brooder in their house or garage. Please people do not put a heat lamp and cardboard in your home or garage. Put it in a freestanding, non-flamable outbuilding.

Just last week our family had a fire caused by a makeshift brooder (rubber tub and cardboard) and a heat lamp. We lost our woodshed full of firewood, storage shed, and one vehicle, none of which was insured, btw. We also lost our sense of safety as the storage shed was not that far from the house. The fire woke us up at 3am and we had to gather our children and pets and run from our home. We were very lucky that the wind was with us, blowing the flames and heat away from our house.

Please, please, please, people, BE CAREFUL. I pray that none of you will ever have to go through something like this. We also lost 5 of the six 4-H baby turkeys in the brooder that caught fire. How the sixth, now christened Scorch, got out is beyond our comprehension.

I love low cost, DIY projects, but I found two very worrysome problems with this plan.

1) Heat lamps and cardboard boxes are a dangerous combination!

2) Cardboard is absorbent and can't be cleaned. Sure, you change the pine shavings, but odors, bacteria, viruses, and fungus spores will love the cardboard brooder!

Here's another idea for a cheap brooder that solves these problems. I made mine for free by salvaging supplies. I got a big tupperware tub for the base. I put shavings in the bottom. Cleaning is just as easy as dumping the shavings into the trash. With the lid to the tub, I cut out a big rectangle in the center, and replaced it with chicken wire. This allows light, ventilation, and heat from a heat lamp securely hung above the brooder. It also protects the chicks from my two cats and lovely toddler (all three are proven predators). Once the chicks are big enough to move into the henhouse, you can disenfect the tub, and then store the brooding supplies (lamp, water/food dishes, perch, etc in the tupperware tub.

'Twas a confusing article but it helped me devise a simpler way. Here's how I built a 10 square-foot cardboard brooder for under $12 that's good for about 20 chicks. Costs shown are for new materials. Improvise to spend even less.

Tape the bottoms of two extra large moving boxes (2’ x 2’ x 18” from U-Haul). Insert the open flaps of one top into the other top until the flaps just overlap. Tape all seams of these flaps, inside and out, on the 2’ wide bottom and 18” sides. Remove the remaining top flaps. Combined, the box is now 2’ wide, 18” deep and 4’-10” long. Cut away the top of the box, leaving a 4-inch wide perimeter. Line the bottom with paper towels then add 2” of dried pine or aspen wood shavings. Set the water and food dispensers (add about $10) on patio blocks at one end of the box. Center a heat lamp (another $10) over the other end, suspended so that it doesn’t touch anything flammable and and can be height-adjusted to regulate temperature in the box.

Hope this helps. Email me at rntwoodworth@comcast.net for pics plus instructions for a matching lid. Put "Chick Brooder" in the subject line.

Hi all,
At the very least I'm happy to know that there's been some interest in my idea for the chicken brooder. If you had a hard time understanding the directions I appolgize. To tell you the truth, it was a little challenging for me to try to put all the steps into words. Luckily, as Matt and Gaylene pointed out, there is an image gallery available at the top of the article.
I'd really love to make sure that if you decide to try this out that your as successful as I was with it. Please, if you have any questions feel free to either drop me an email or stop by my personal blog and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.
You can find a link to both at the bottom of any of my posts on my Grit Blog page.
http://www.grit.com/blogs/blog.aspx?blogid=2340

Best of luck to you all with your chicks!
Paul Gardener~

If you want to see pictures, click on the Image Gallery in the article tools box. They are very good pictures, and ARE in fact included in the article.

I used rubbermaid containers, and covered the bottom with brown paper that I purchased from Lowes in a big roll. Sat the whole thing on top of my chest-type freezer, which always puts out heat from the motor, and added a heat lamp. Did the same with my turkeys, and they are all fine big birds now, ready to start laying within the next couple of weeks. Don't forget to cover the top of your brooder with chicken wire, they learn to flap pretty early. My husband found one of our chicks walking down the hallway. Good thing he got to her BEFORE the dog did!

It is an awkward location that took me some time to find several months ago, but to the right of the article title on each page are links. The first link is for the image gallery. For this article there are seven pics that can be seen. Probably has to do with keeping their bandwidth to a minimum.

It is an awkward location that took me some time to find several months ago, but to the right of the article title on each page are links. The first link is for the image gallery. For this article there are seven pics that can be seen. Probably has to do with keeping their bandwidth to a minimum.

It is an awkward location that took me some time to find several months ago, but to the right of the article title on each page are links. The first link is for the image gallery. For this article there are seven pics that can be seen. Probably has to do with keeping their bandwidth to a minimum.

I been raising rabbits in the city for some time now, anyone needs info on that just ask away.
Joe
joseph.1313@yahoo.com

this is interesting but where are the plans for it. and city people can't rase chickens so how about some information on rabbits

I agree with the above comments. I can't imagine from reading the article what this brooder would look like. Like the old saying goes, "A picture is worth a thousand words." I have been brroding chickens in cardboard boxes for more years than I can count, but for the life of me your brooder description baffles me.

I wish when people have good ideas like this that they would show pictures of the steps or at least the finished project. I can't even begin to imagine what this looks like let alone figure out how to make it. Also, do you clean this thing or just keep adding litter to the bottom? Just exactly how bad does it smell after awhile? I raised chicks inside the house in boxes before and the stink got so bad I ended up taking them out to the barn after a couple weeks. The best brooder I have found so far is an old metal drinking trough. You can find leaky ones at auctions for a few dollars that work great. The bar across the top is perfect for hanging the heat lamp. As for cleaning, just use a kitty litter scoop to clean the shavings, place them in a paper bag and then put down fresh ones. Add the shavings to the compost pile. Make sure to put wire mesh across the top to keep barn rats, cats and other nasty critters from getting to the chicks. Young children shouldn't be handling them without adult supervision anyway so access to the chicks shouldn't be an issue.

I got a good chuckle out of this article. I've been building brooders for my chicks out of cardboard boxes for a while now!! It's such a simple and disposable way to create a brooders. I've used wardrobe boxes, TV boxes, and old moving boxes. They work great because you can expand them as the babies grow. All I've ever done is tape the box together, cut the top off, put paper towel in for the first few days and then swiched to shavings, and attach a brooder lamp to either the side of the box or a stool placed next to it.

I'm disappointed with this article. I tried, honestly, I tried to follow the directions, but you needed a picture at least of the completed project, if not steps along the way. I have chicks coming in another week, and I was hoping to take advantage of this advice. I'll have to keep looking.

This is a great idea. I am thinking of starting a flock of chickens, ducks, geese, and turkeys this spring and I believe that I will use your instructions in making a low cost brooder.