Brand new at raising chicks

Hello and Welcome To BYC!

Thank you so much for the great feedback Michael, and thank you to the others for their input. Great advice all the way around. I've been searching the site and trying to find information on how to clean out the bottom of a large dog crate that I think I can use as a brooder for another month but no luck. Any ideas? It's a very heavy crate and due to it's size, I can't lift it or take it outside to clean out the bedding. Does anyone have any ideas? I am also open to any other ideas anyone has for a temporary brooder for about a month till I get their coop put together. I'm on a fixed income so I'm trying to keep the costs down. But I'm certainly open to any and all ideas. Thank you so much everyone for your help. I'm so grateful.

Hi Michael. Thanks so much for the great advice on how to introduce my chicks to the outdoors. I put my 4 week old girls out today in the dog crate for the first time for about an hour and a half and after just a few minutes they seemed to know what to do. I was having so much fun watching them and even my little dog loves them so much she thinks they are her babies and tried to groom them while they were in their crate. The chicks have bonded with her too. They follow her around if she moves to the other side of the crate. It was only 70 degrees out so they spent most of the time in the shade and a little time in filtered sun/shade. They definitely liked the shade better just as you had said. I also tried putting some small bits of apple on a folded up paper towel in their brooder but they ran and hid in the corner. They were actually afraid of the paper towel. Ha ha. Any way, today I put a little bit of oatmeal in the palm of my hand and they came right over and began eating it with no problems. While they were in the crate, they stayed as close to me as possible when they weren't scratching and eating. Who knew I would ever enjoy them this much. It's amazing the difference one day makes. I'm going to try to include a couple of photos if I can figure out how to incorporate them into this email. Thanks again for your wonderful advice.

HELP......How do I make my pics smaller? Sorry folks, didn't mean to take up a whole page.

thefeatherlady said:

Hi Michael. Thanks so much for the great advice on how to introduce my chicks to the outdoors.

Click to expand...

You're welcome. Glad I was able to help. Your Light Brahma girls are beautiful. It reminds me of the first flock I ever had (they were Light Brahmas as well). Good luck with your girls.

thefeatherlady said:

HELP......How do I make my pics smaller? Sorry folks, didn't mean to take up a whole page.

Click to expand...

It doesn't bother me. They are beautiful pictures. If you don't want them that large, when you click to embed an image, it should give you a choice of sizes. You can just click on the smallest one.

Thank you. Thanks also for telling me how to make my pics smaller. A big Oooops there.