"A chick, chick here and a chick, chick there; here a chick, there a chick, everywhere a chick, chick." That was the situation in Gail Damerow's barn each spring, when the place was wall-to-wall cardboard boxes full of chicks, guinea keets, and turkey poults. Finally she decided enough was enough. In this video, Gail Damerow, author of Hatching & Brooding Your Own Chicks, shows the custom brooding facility she and her husband designed and built in an underused part of their barn. They divided the brooder into four sections to accommodate hatchlings of different species and different age groups. Each section works independently of the others, and could easily be adapted to construction as a single brooder or as a freestanding, movable unit. Gail Damerow and her husband operate a family farm in Tennessee where they keep poultry and dairy goats, tend a sizable garden, and maintain a small orchard. They grow and preserve much of their own food, make their own yogurt and ice cream, and bake their own bread. Gail has written extensively on raising livestock, growing fruits and vegetables, and related rural skills. She shares her experience and knowledge as a regular contributor to Backyard Poultry magazine, as a contributor to numerous other periodicals, and as the author or contributor to more than a dozen country skills how-to books including Hatching & Brooding Your Own Chicks, Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens, The Chicken Encyclopedia, The Chicken Health Handbook, Your Chickens, Your Goats, and Draft Horses and Mules.

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