Bringing in the outdoors

[SaltLakeChickenMama]

Hello chicken parents!
My chicks, about 3 weeks old, can’t seem to get enough roosting. They keep hopping up on the brooder walls and it looks painful for their feet. Can I bring a large old peach tree branch into their indoor brooder? I’m worried about what they might peck and eat off the wood… see stick in picture.

 

[DobieLover]

Hello chicken parents!
My chicks, about 3 weeks old, can’t seem to get enough roosting. They keep hopping up on the brooder walls and it looks painful for their feet. Can I bring a large stick into their indoor brooder? I’m worried about what they might peck and eat off the wood… see stick in picture.

Bring that in along with a chunk of sod for them to scratch through. It helps them develop their immune system.

 

[Weeg]

I think a stick would be fine. They might taste the wood a bit, but they'll quickly learn that it isn't food. I doubt it will do any harm.

 

[Weeg]

Bring that in along with a chunk of sod for them to scratch through. It helps them develop their immune system.

Good idea. Just be careful. Some sod squares have a plastic mesh on the bottom. A thread was posted a while back where a chicken got tangled and died after eating the sod down to the plastic. I'd be even more concerned about this with chicks.

 

[DobieLover]

Good idea. Just be careful. Some sod squares have a plastic mesh on the bottom. A thread was posted a while back where a chicken got tangled and died after eating the sod down to the plastic. I'd be even more concerned about this with chicks.

Sod is just grass and the soil it is growing from. Shouldn't be plastic in it unless it literally came from a roll.

 

[Weeg]

Sod is just grass and the soil it is growing from. Shouldn't be plastic in it unless it literally came from a roll.

Got it, misunderstanding then. I was thinking purchased sod.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Commercially grown sod, definitely not. Chunk of grass, with roots and soil with no fertilizers/other chemicals, yes.