Last week hubby and I were at our local farm store picking up a few things and we heard a ruckus.  It was that tell tale sound we’ve been waiting months for-chicks!!!  So we rushed over and started talking chickens.  We knew we had the stuff at home to set up a brooder, and our coop is about 99% finished.  We have a friend breeding us some of her free range, non-hybrid breed chickens but man, we just couldn’t wait!  We know we want a flock of 30+ chickens, so we went ahead and bought 16 chicks.

The 2 yellow ones are Cornish Cross-destined to be butchered in about 7 more weeks.  We had 3 but lost one the first night home.  We only got a couple because we’ve never butchered before and wanted to start “light”.  The stripey ones are Barred Rocks, and the ones with white dots on their heads are Black Australorps.

Aren’t they cute???   Now, why you’re here..you want to know about our setup for their brooder right?  Well here goes!  First, we knew they needed to be in the house for a couple of reasons.  1) Coop isn’t ready yet (not warm enough, no electric for heat lamps, etc.); 2) protection from predators & weather; that type of thing.  So where to put them, we decided that in the living room by my desk was the best place to keep them safe from kids and cats.  We had a BIG Rubbermaid bin that I used to keep all my flannel in, but the lid was busted many moons ago and I no longer needed it for my flannel.

We purchased the feed holder and waterer from the feed store (although if I had seen this post from The Prairie Homestead I may have tried that first!), as well as the red bulbs for the heat lamps.  The top was made again, to keep them safe from kids and cats, but allow us to see them and them to have plenty of ventilation.  Bobby used lumber and hardware cloth we already had on hand (both of which I think we actually got from someone’s trash pile at some point shhhh).  The piece sticking up on the left is to attach the heat lamps to.

This is what the brooder lid looks like from the side.  We wanted to make sure it couldn’t be slid off so its like a box kind of.  It’s also too heavy for the little ones to move on their own.  All of the kids LOVE sitting and watching the chicks, and I can NOT freak out knowing they can’t hurt the chicks.

This is what the brooder looks like in action.  The lamp you see is one I had from a failed “make your own light box” experiment for the shop (seriously, I am SO not a photographer..it’s ridiculous).  Overall I think we spent less than $20 out of pocket for the whole setup; and then the cost of the chicks of course.

Oh, and really?  The joy I feel listening to them make their little chirpy noises is worth every penny!