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Off Grid Chick Brooder For Raising Broiler Meat Chickens

Free energy off grid chick brooder for raising 30 meat birds (broiler chicks) for our homestead. This idea uses zero extra energy and no electricity to raise newly hatched chicks until they are strong enough to go outside.


Newly hatched chicks cannot regulate their own temperature yet so they need a source of heat to keep them alive. Without heat they will die overnight. Most people use heat lamps rated at 250 watts or so and leave them on 24/7, burning thousands of watts of energy while the chicks grow up.


Having been fully off the grid on our previous homestead and striving to become off the grid on our new homestead, we are used to raising chicks without the need for electricity.

 

Free off grid chick brooder to raise chicks with no electricity


In nature a chick will snuggle up under its mother as needed to keep warm until it grows its feathers out and can regulate its own temperature. This can take many weeks depending on the breed of chicken you are raising.
We have to provide that warmth for the chicks when there is no mother to care for them.


In our off grid tiny house we always put the chicks in a box in the upstairs loft where it is always the warmest. We never lost a single bird doing this.


Now, in our new tiny home, we want to conserve energy as well. And there is another bonus of keeping the birds alive without a heat lamp. Light bulbs are prone to fail. If the bulb goes out then you lose all your birds. I do not want to trust our birds to a light bulb.

 

 

 


We we put the chicks in a box for now and then put that into a dog carrier. The dog carrier keeps the chicks in and the cats out.


Then we put the dog kennel on top of a chair near the wood stove. We have a sort of wood furnace so it has a second heat shield door. I left this door open to allow more heat to reach the little chicks.


And so we left them overnight.


In the morning we woke up to the happy chirps of little chickens scratching and eating in their new home. They made it through the night just fine.


The small box is only temporary and will be replace with a larger box in a couple days. These chicks will grow fast and will soon be more active. During their first couple days they are not as active and the box will keep them warmer.


But very soon we will have to expand and get a box that fits the dog kennel to allow the little chickens to move around more.

 

 


And soon after that, we will be splitting them up into separate kennels to give them room as they grow up.
But through it all, the chicks will be fine without a heat lamp.


To prevent dust, feathers and filth from getting into your home you can line the sides of the cage with cardboard. This will stop the dirt from getting out into your home.


We have been raising chicks like this for many years now with great success.

You can watch today's video here: Watch the video now  Homestead Life - Off Grid Chick Brooder - Got 30 Meat Birds

 

While you are over there please subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow our daily videos as we strive to become self sufficient and off the grid on a budget.

 

Feel free to ask any questions or get help with your project on our Discussion and support forum





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Troy Reid

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