How We Made Our Amazing Chick and Duckling Brooder Into A Smart Brooder
If you looked at our last blog post to learn how to build the same kind of brooder that we have, or if you already have a brooder of your own that involves a heat lamp, you're ready to learn how to smart-ify your brooder.
Why make your brooder smart? There are several benefits. One, you won't have to try to figure out how far away your lamp needs to be from your chicks. You can set the lamp in one place, and you no longer have to move it. Secondly, having your lamps controlled to never go over a maximum heat greatly reduces your risk of a fire, however, heat lamps are inherently dangerous so you should always be vigilant in preventing fires and be sure you always have a fire extinguisher nearby. Third, you can easily adjust the temperature to decrease as your chicks grow (many breeders recommend brooding chicks at around 95 degrees Fahrenheit for the first week and slowly reducing that temperature by 5 degrees per week).
What supplies are needed? We love Wyze for our smart home devices (not a sponsor, but if anyone from Wyze is reading this, we would love to be!). Along with cameras, home monitoring systems, and spy cars, Wyze also sells a Monitoring Hub, Smart Outlets and Climate Sensors, which work in tandem with the Wyze iOS/Google App that allows you to constantly monitor the temperature and set up rules to turn heat lamps on and off based on temperature. You will also need heat lamps with your choice in bulbs, we love ceramic bulbs but we tend to use the standard 250w red bulbs since those are readily available at TSC and Amazon. Lastly, you may need an extension cord if you are going to have more than 2 heat lamps per smart outlet (we use 2 smart outlets which give us a total of 4 lamps for our 4-section brooder).
How do you set up the smart brooder? Follow Wyze's tutorials on how to connect your smart outlets, climate sensors, and monitoring hub to the app on your smart phone. Make sure that your climate sensor is in a small ziploc baggie to keep it from getting destroyed by bird poop or duckling splashes, and set it directly underneath where the heat lamp will be, on top of the shavings. Plug the heat lamp into the smart outlet and turn everything on. You'll want to name your devices something so that you can remember what they are, for example, outlet A goes to heat lamp A which should be on top of climate sensor A, and so on.
Then, create "rules" with your devices. For the first week of brooding chicks, I have a rule that says "if climate sensor A detects temperatures above 99 degrees, turn off outlet A." There also needs to be a rule along the lines of "if climate sensor C detects temperatures below 95 degrees, turn on outlet C." Make sure to add one "bottom" rule and one "top" rule for each outlet/heat lamp/climate sensor.
When your chicks are older and don't need heat so much anymore, you can edit your rules within the Wyze app. When your chicks are over a week old, for example, set your maximum temperature to 95 and your minimum temperature to 90. This will ensure your chicks are not overheating.
What feeders and waterers should you use? I use the standard mason jar shaped screw-on waterers from your local farm supply store, and the long feeders that flip open. Get the plastic ones and not the metal, they are much easier to clean and they won't cut your hands!
We use repurposed cookie cake tray bottoms to set the waterers in to keep the shavings from getting into the waterer bases.
F.A.Q.'s
Q: Do I need the Wyze Home Monitoring subscription?
A: No. According to Wyze's website, you do not need the Home Monitoring Subscription for the Climate Sensors to work.
Q: Does the brooder need to be within range of a Wi-Fi connection?
A: Yes, since the Climate Sensors are connected via Wyze Monitoring Hub, the brooder needs to be within 300 ft of a Wyze Monitoring Hub that is connected to Wi-Fi. We keep our brooder in a detached garage that can reach the Wyze Hub in our house.
Q: Can I buy used smart home devices instead of buying new?
A: Of course! I love buying gently used smart home devices on Facebook Marketplace. It's a great way to save money on this set-up.
Please feel free to reach out to us via e-mail if you need one-on-one help setting up your chick brooder. Our e-mail is contact@texashoneyspot.com