Chicken Fever Part 3: Preparing for the Cure

Let the countdown to chicks begin!  My chicken fever was burning hot but the cure was on the way.  The eggs were laid and in the incubators.  Only three weeks to go.  We were on the road to being chicken farmers.

Chicks need a little TLC.  In our somewhat northern climate week-old chicks would not do well outdoors without a mama in early May.  We had to build a brooder.  One book told me to brood chicks out in the coop; it was written by someone in the southern States.  Another said to brood chicks in the bathroom; no, thank you!  We settled for a happy medium and built a brooder in the basement.  It was not as intrusive as it would be in our bathroom, yet still within the cozy confines of the house. 

A brooder is a confined area where chicks are kept until they are big and resilient enough to be outdoors in a coop.  It has a source of heat to keep the babies warm and is lined with some kind of bedding.  Because this was going to be a temporary home for the biddies we made our brooder out of cardboard and tape and a tarp.  Very fancy.

We started by laying a small tarp over the carpet and taping it down.  What?!?  On carpet, you say?  Yes, carpet.  That would prove to be a tiny mistake down the road, but that's a story for another day.  We collected cardboard from large appliance boxes and fashioned it into a squarish shape, a rhombus maybe, on top of the tarp and secured it together with tape.  We are high class people. 
 

We used two ladders on each side of the room to support a 2x4 across the top of the brooder, then hung a brooder light on a chain from the 2x4.  Then we laid down pine shavings several inches thick to give the tiny ones a nice soft, absorbent floor.  We added a thermometer so we could monitor the temperature and make sure the wee ones were comfy.

We opted for metal feeders that allowed each tiny chick head to fit in a hole and pig out without having to share the spot.  Ha!  More on that later.  We bought a tiny chick-sized waterer and added marbles to the tray so no sleepy chicks would fall asleep in the water and drown.  Yes, this is a real possibility.  We bought chick feed and stocked a basic chicken first aid kit.  Oh yeah.  We were ready.

Bring on the chickens!