Lightweight Paddock Shift Chick Brooder - PEP BB animal.straw.chickbrooder

Now that my chicks have graduated out of the brooder, I feel confident enough to submit this BB.
I detailed my experience in my Building a Portable Brooder thread; head on over there if you would like more detail :)

I built a Justin Rhodes style chick brooder from reused and reclaimed material, mostly things I had on hand.
My goal was to build something for 12-20 chicks without spending much (more) money.
I like Justin's design for its simplicity, structural integrity, but it didn't have the insulative properties I needed to raise chicks without a hen.
I modified this to both cut down on wind and retain more heat by ditching the plastic and hardware cloth in favor of 7/8" thick, 5.5" wide, 24" long cedar fence pickets

The interior dimensions are 2' wide by 4' long and the outside run is 28" wide by 3' long.
I added an axle and wheels, a handle, a tin roof, and a cross beam to support several heat lamps.

I moved them throughout my mowable meadow and then had my wife and some friends assist while I/we were out of town.
Moving was fairly easy, though had to be done with intent as to avoid harming the birds.

Here's a pic of the starting materials


Here's a progress pic where the lid has yet to be constructed:


And here's a picture of the completed build, the night before I got chicks:


Here's a sketch of the coop (scale: each square on the graph paper represents 6")


Here's a pic of 12 (or is that 13?) out of my 16 chicks, enjoying the warmth in the back half - farthest away from the door to create a heat gradient:


Here are some dimensions with a tape measure!
Brooder Width


Brooder Length


Run Width


Run Length


A gif of me moving it all by my lonesome (that little rock I removed acted as my 'minimum move distance' and also a heatsink under the lamps for the chicks to warm against)



Overall, this was a great success. My 16 chicks had no trouble in there until they were feathered out.
Now they've graduated to a larger run, but I've left the brooder in Chicklandia (behind the sign against the white fence) until they're comfortable sleeping in the coop itself.


I plan to keep it around because, as Jay Angler pointed out:

seems as if it would make an excellent setting cube for a chicken

But if anyone would like to borrow it in the interim, please reach out :)