In this episode of my Ultimate Brooder Build series, I’m finishing out the part I don’t like to do… chicken wire. We’ve got the walls up and the doors in (looking pretty fly, I must say myself), and now it’s time to secure wire on all the exterior walls, doors, and divider walls so these brooders are actually safe and usable. It’s a pain in the butt, it’s sharp-sharp, and I hate fighting a staple gun—but it’s one of those steps you don’t skip if you want chicks secure and separated. I also show you the door trick that makes wiring doors way easier: I hang the door first, wrap the wire over it, and I don’t cut the hinge side, top, or bottom. I only staple the wire to the door—NOT the header board or baseboard—then I cut one clean line so the door opens and closes like it should. It’s faster than fencing around every door panel, and it blocks off that hinge gap so birds can’t squeeze out. We even reused some green coated wire from a pen that blew over in the storms earlier this year—lighter, doesn’t kick back, and it doesn’t slice me up like regular wire. After that, we move into latches and start talking bedding, roost cards, and hanging feeders to cut way down on feed waste.