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Brooder Instructions

The brooders are easy to look after, but need a little care when taking them apart and putting them back together again. Most of all please look after the blue clips as we cannot replace them. The lamp takes an E27 spotlight bulb available from any hardware store. If you have to replace a bulb we will reimburse the cost. The bulb housing is only designed to open up on one side to change the bulb, please do not try to take the bottom half off as the holder may break.

The blue tray underneath is held on by two blue curly clips. The chick poo falls through the grill floor of the brooder on to the blue tray. Some schools find it easier to take the tray off for cleaning and scrape the poo into a toilet, rinse it out in a sink and out it back. Others put blue hand towel in the bottom and find that easier to put in the bin. Whatever system you find suits you, please make sure both curly clips are put back as otherwise the tray will fall off when the brooder is picked up.

If it is necessary to clean the inner tray, the brooder can be taken apart by undoing the three blue clips around the middle. The two yellow halves of the brooder come apart by twisting them in opposite directions to unslide the two catches at the side. You can see from the photo that the hooks in the catches are designed to slide apart, not be pulled. Unfortunately they snap easily if the two halves are pulled apart. It may be that the brooder you have has already had some of the catches snapped off in which case it will come apart easily when the three blue clips are removed. The catch at the back just drops in vertically, so will come apart easily when the blue clip is taken off.

Once the brooder is clean the two halves will need to be twisted together again and the blue clips put back on. Once the blue clips are hooked on at the top there is no other way to clip them on than to give them a sharp bang with your wrist!

There are two containers on the inner grill floor. The flat tray with the blue front is for the food and the round one is for a water bottle. Any plastic water bottle will do, but one is supplied with the brooder. You will need to fill the bottle, put your hand over the top, turn the bottle over and slide it into the brooder, then take your hand off the top as you pop the bottle on the lug in the middle of the circle.

The lamp housing goes up and down. It is the heat source for the chicks, so be guided by them where the lamp should be. If they are huddled in the middle they are cold, so put it down a bit; if they are splattered around the edge they are too hot so raise it a bit and if they are happily pecking around it is just right. On hot days or in a hot classroom the light may not need to be on at all, but should be put on when you leave as the classroom can get quite cold at night.