Best Chicken Brooder On a Budget

Today, we’re posting as both a news update and a brief instructional. As the title suggests, we’ve added more chickens to our flock! Specifically, we got a variety of six different pullets from Rural King on Saturday, May 14th. And, with the introduction of these new chickens, we started out with a new option for their brooder. Having used this option for nearly two weeks, we are quite convinced -this is the best chicken brooder we could have picked. Interested to learn what we’re using? Read on!

What We Did Our First Time

When we first got chickens, we kind of rushed into things. By “kind of” we should clarify…we totally jumped in without being prepared. And, despite our lack of preparation, things turned out pretty good. But, our first take on a chicken brooder was far from sustainable. Perhaps as important, cleanup and breakdown of the brooder after the fact was a pain. As you’ll recall, we built our brooder out of cardboard. We don’t recommend this and it definitely won’t last beyond one use.

Should You Build a Chicken Brooder

Of course, rather than work with our duck-tape, ghetto, cardboard brooder, we initially planned to build a more solid one of our own. The thought was to use some pallets and hardware cloth to build a wooden brooder. This would include a frame above to hold the heat lamp along with a nice area for them to hang in. However, the time and amount of pallets it would take to make this large enough to fit our desired size left us wanting. While this sort of brooder would do the trick, we just didn’t feel it was the right use of those pallets or our time. Instead, we thought of options we could buy and repurpose.

The Best Chicken Brooder On A Budget

Rather than building our own chicken brooder for this, we decided there was a better option. And, since we took this option, we are convinced we’ve come up with the best chicken brooder on a budget. First, make sure you have all the chicken brooding supplies. You’ll still need a feeder, waterer, heat lamp, and bedding. But, to house them, all you need is a dog kennel.

In fact, this 36″ tall dog kennel at Amazon is perfect for your brooding needs. You’ll see in our picture that we wrapped cardboard around the edges and all around the outside. Let me clarify that this is not necessary. But, for us, we did it because our cats have open access to the porch where we house them. So, the gaps in the kennel aren’t large enough for the pullets to be at risk of escape. But, they are wide enough that a cat could reach in an disturb them. If you put your brooder in a safer spot, you won’t have to worry about this.

Which Option is Right For You?

So, if you are looking to get yourself started with chickens, don’t overpay for a fancy brooder. If you have the time and materials to do it right, maybe you go ahead and build one yourself. But, if you want a quick and easy option, we recommend a dog crate. This offers you a functional chicken brooder at a fraction of the price of traditional brooders sold in store.

Looking for other frugal ways to build your homestead? Make sure to subscribe for multiple blogs every week. Until next time, we’ll see you around the homestead.