This how to build a DIY poultry brooder box for chicks is the best chicken brooder for your day old chicks! This brooder box is a good size for a young chick, adult chickens, that broody hen, or even that mama hen.

So you’ve taken the first step into self-sufficiency, the chick plunge! Congratulations, and welcome to homesteading. If you are anything like me, you went to the local feed store for dog food or cat food, saw the adorable chicks and after hearing their sweet little chirps, not to mention the joy in your children’s voices, found yourself with a cardboard box full of your very own new chicks! Since the price of eggs has shot through the roof and chicks are flying off the shelves, you have convinced yourself that it’s a good idea to take this next step. Knowing zero about these young birds, you then cornered the employee at the store, who is now contemplating quitting, to educate you of all things needed in successfully raising baby chicks. She told you that just a simple plastic bin could serve as a brooder but failed to mention how quickly chicks grow, which will leave you scratching your head in just the first week. Now you are surfing the web for a quick, inexpensive way to build a brooder. No worries my friend, I have you covered!

What Is A Chicken Brooder?

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How To Build A DIY Poultry Brooder Box For Chicks

A brooder is a four sided enclosed box with a mesh top for circulation, used to house day old chicks through the first weeks of life and keep them safe until they are feathered and ready to be transitioned into a permanent chicken coop. It can serve many different functions during your journey of raising chickens, given that it is made with enough room. You will probably find it necessary at some point to make it. You could get by with using a dog crate, but that tends to get very messy, or a plastic bin, which they’ll quickly grow out of. Some like to use a water trough or stock tank but soon remember that birds fly and find their house looking like nothing short of an Ace Ventura movie! For us, this brooder box is the perfect size and serves as a safe place for mama hen and her young chicks!

What Else Is A Brooder Used For?

You will want to keep your chicks in the brooder for the first several weeks of age, until they start to feather out, and the outdoor temperature is holding at a steady 50 degrees. You will place them into the brooder with a reliable heat source (one that wont be a fire hazard), some clean water, and chick starter feed. It’s always important to know the brooder temperature as you don’t want it to be too hot or too cold. Once the teenage chickens have moved to their permanent residence, you still will find yourself needing your brooder for emergency purposes. If your hen gets injured or sick and needs special care, your brooder will be the best way to quarantine her. You may even find that you have a broody hen (a hen that is sitting on her eggs in a nesting box) and would like to give her a shot at raising her own chicks. You will then transfer her, her fertile eggs, a water source, and food to the brooder, and in about 21 days you will have some hatching eggs! This is a great way to keep the first time mother hen and her baby chickens, nice and safe from the rest of the flock.

What You’ll Need:

(5) 2X4X8’s

Cut 1 into (4) 2 foot lengths
Cut 1 into (2) 45 inch lengths
Cut 2 into 52 ¼ inch and 24 ½ inch lengths
Cut 1 into 52 ¼ inch length

(1) 4X8 plywood 11/32 inch

Cut into (4) 2′ X 4′ Pieces. 3 of these will be your front, back, and bottom.
Cut one of these pieces in half to make it 2′ X 2′. These will be your sides.

(1) 1 X 8 X 6

Cut 1 X 8 X6 into 52 ¼ inch length and 8 inch length
Cut 8 inch piece in half diagonally. You will have 2 triangles.

Enough chicken wire, wire mesh, or hardware cloth to cover 2 ½’ X 4 ½’

1 ½ inch screws

⅜ inch staples

Staple gun

Drill

Directions:

Screw the sides and the front and back into the 2 foot long 2×4’s. The 2×4’s will act as inside corner braces. This will give you your four sided box. Make sure the 2×4’s are facing the sides of the box.

Lay your last 2’X4′ piece of plywood on top of your box and screw into the 2X4’s at the four corners. This will be your bottom. Flip the box right side up. Place your two 45 inch 2X4’s flat against the bottom of the box between the corner braces with the sides against the front wall and the back wall as shown in the picture. Screw into them from the bottom of the box and also from the side of the box. This will give your box strength for casters or legs.

At this point you can add feet or castors but this is completely optional. Screw them into the four corners of the bottom of the box.

Build your top frame by screwing your 52 1/4 inch 2X4’s into your 24 1/4 inch 2X4’s as shown in the picture. This will give you a rectangular frame that should just fit over the top of your brooder box. Wrap the top with chicken wire until it is completely covered. Secure it with staples.

Line up your 1X8 with your last 2X4 so that they form an “L” shape. They should both be 52 1/4 inches long. Screw the 1X8 into the 2X4. Put this “L” piece along the edge of the lid and screw into the top of the lid as shown in the picture. This will be the rail to hang your heat lamp on. It will also keep the lid from resting on the chicken wire when on the box.

Grab your two triangles and screw them into the two remaining corners of the lid. These will also keep the lid from resting on the chicken wire.

Not sure how to raise chicks? Check out The Daily Marcus’ How To Raise Chicks For Beginners and find out the do’s and don’ts when raising chicks!

Or if you need help deciding on the perfect egg layer for your homestead check out The Daily Marcus’ The 25 Best Chicken Breeds That Lay Brown Eggs.