Making a Temperature Controlled Brooder
- written by Aaron
Note: This project requires a basic level of electrical wiring ability. Do not let your Ego get the better of you when trying to tackle this or any other project. If you do not posses the required skill set to safely complete this project seek out the help of someone who does.
Shortly after my wife decided that we were going to raise baby chicks the second thing I did after building the chicken coop was to put together a temperature controller for the brooder. After reading on countless forums and chapters in various books about altering the height or wattage of a light to maintain specific temperatures in the brooder I knew two things 1. There has to be a better way and 2. If left solely up to me to take care of them for a day I would probably change something every five minutes and end up killing them.
So calling upon my experience building temperature controllers for my home brewery I made a small controller that I could plug two heat lamps into. I used a STC-1000 (smart temperature controller) that can be purchased on Amazon for about $16 shipped if you have prime. You will also need a small project box that will run you around $9. I was able to use an old outlet and extension chord that I had on hand but I would not think you would spend more the $10 for both of them at your local home improvement store.
In order to assemble the controller I used a dremel with a cutoff wheel, and a drill bit to cut the appropriate sized hole for the components. In order to make the cutout for the plug I simply used a wall faceplate as a template to transfer a cutout onto the box. It is worth saying that if I were to make this again I would have used a screw mount power inlet similar to what is found on desktop computers.
I stripped the outer cover off the power cable giving me about 1 foot of wire to work with. After that I slide the power cable and probe wire into the small hole I drilled and through the square cutout for the controller. This allowed me to wire the controller outside of the box and then slid it into place. After putting the controller in place I wired the plug and then put it in place. Finally I used exterior calking to fill in the holes around the plug, my cutting abilities are not as good as I would like, plus remember the brewing my own beer comment, yep this project was done under the influence of a least 1 homebrew.
When everything was put together I simply programmed the controller according to the instructions and set it to the correct temperature according to the age of the chickens. You will still have to monitor the brooder for a while to make sure you are not just heating the probe and causing the controller to turn off the heat lamps prematurely. This being our first experience raising chicks probably checked the brooder 20 times the first day and then progressively fewer times a day as my confidence in its ability to regulate the temperature in the brooder grew, and within a couple of days I never checked on it unless I was in the room with the chickens.
Note: This project requires a basic level of electrical wiring ability. Do not let your Ego get the better of you when trying to tackle this or any other project. If you do not posses the required skill set to safely complete this project seek out the help of someone who does.
Shortly after my wife decided that we were going to raise baby chicks the second thing I did after building the chicken coop was to put together a temperature controller for the brooder. After reading on countless forums and chapters in various books about altering the height or wattage of a light to maintain specific temperatures in the brooder I knew two things 1. There has to be a better way and 2. If left solely up to me to take care of them for a day I would probably change something every five minutes and end up killing them.
So calling upon my experience building temperature controllers for my home brewery I made a small controller that I could plug two heat lamps into. I used a STC-1000 (smart temperature controller) that can be purchased on Amazon for about $16 shipped if you have prime. You will also need a small project box that will run you around $9. I was able to use an old outlet and extension chord that I had on hand but I would not think you would spend more the $10 for both of them at your local home improvement store.
In order to assemble the controller I used a dremel with a cutoff wheel, and a drill bit to cut the appropriate sized hole for the components. In order to make the cutout for the plug I simply used a wall faceplate as a template to transfer a cutout onto the box. It is worth saying that if I were to make this again I would have used a screw mount power inlet similar to what is found on desktop computers.
I stripped the outer cover off the power cable giving me about 1 foot of wire to work with. After that I slide the power cable and probe wire into the small hole I drilled and through the square cutout for the controller. This allowed me to wire the controller outside of the box and then slid it into place. After putting the controller in place I wired the plug and then put it in place. Finally I used exterior calking to fill in the holes around the plug, my cutting abilities are not as good as I would like, plus remember the brewing my own beer comment, yep this project was done under the influence of a least 1 homebrew.
When everything was put together I simply programmed the controller according to the instructions and set it to the correct temperature according to the age of the chickens. You will still have to monitor the brooder for a while to make sure you are not just heating the probe and causing the controller to turn off the heat lamps prematurely. This being our first experience raising chicks probably checked the brooder 20 times the first day and then progressively fewer times a day as my confidence in its ability to regulate the temperature in the brooder grew, and within a couple of days I never checked on it unless I was in the room with the chickens.
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Sorry for the post delay! Between school and traveling, it's been hard to find the time. One more month of school and I'll have a lot more free time! I'm working on some chicken breed profiles because several people have asked me why I picked the chickens that I own. Until then... here's a picture of my beautiful Dolly!
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