A Unique Chicken Brooder Idea (Repurposing something most parents already have in storage)

Pictured above is my oldest son playing with his first chicken flock as they explored outside for the first time.  My son had just turned 6 and we promised him 6 chicks for his 6th birthday. If you look closely, you will count eight chicks. That’s how chicken math works. You say 6, end up with 8, and we are currently at 25, two years after this photo was taken.

Before we committed to chickens, we did a lot of research on their care, housing, etc. But one of the questions we saw so many varied answers to was about brooders. Some build elaborate brooders or spend lots of money on an already-made brooder. Neither of those options satisfied me. Why spend a lot of time or money on something the chicks will be in for such a short period of time? After all, I thought I’d only do the chick thing once. I had not yet been educated on the inner workings of “chicken math” or how irresistible baby chicks were at my local farm store, but that’s a story for another day.

I took to the internet and Pinterest to attempt to discover new and imaginative brooder ideas. That’s where I first saw the idea of using a portable baby crib. I thought, oh I have one of those collecting dust, stellar idea! So we grabbed it down from a closet, dusted it off, and placed some bedding and other chick starter things inside, and voila we had a brooder with nothing invested.

It worked perfectly for the 8 birds we started with! It allowed room for our brooder plate, water, food, and still plenty of room for them to play. Once they got big enough to fly to the top we just placed a fitted sheet over the top and they were still able to get fresh air through the mesh sides! 10/10 recommend this if you have a portable crib you’ll never use again.

Also, a bonus was that it was on wheels on one end so I could wheel the chickens outside for fresh air then back in for the evening! Happy Chickening!