The field brooder is a 4FT*8FT pen with half covered and heated, and half open, on grass, with chicken wires overhead. This is an invention of mine which I thought would help chicks to get more progressively acclimated to outdoors. They can come in and out of the heated area, as if they were coming in and out from under their mother's wings. They choose how long they stay in each area. The heater is on a thermostat, the temperature is adjustable. The field brooder is on wheels, so it can be moved when the grass gets dirty.
The broiler chicks love getting on the grass, and they can be moved outdoor a lot sooner that normally, usually at 1 week of age instead of 2 weeks. They are then moved from the field brooder to the bigger unheated chicken tractor at 2 weeks of age (this was done yesterday for our latest broilers). Compared to the conventional brooder/tractor method, this brooder/field brooder/tractor allows the chicks to be put outdoor one week earlier than normal.
Since we are done for the season with broiler chicks, we are now using the field brooder for our peacock. A peacock should normally stays 4 months in the brooder. Our peacock just left the brooder at one month, and will spent his second month in the field brooder. This morning, after his first night outdoors, he was the center of attention of our free ranging birds. The layers, ducks, turkeys were all around, and even roosting on top of the field brooder, getting acquainted with the new kid on the field. Too bad I didn't have my camera on hand, it was just hilarious.
Here is a close up shot of the peacock in the field brooder:
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