I have my bell-shaped waterer on a cinder block with a cone thing on top which seems to deter them from trying to hop up on it. They free range most of the day, so they don't spend much time in the coop which I think helps as well. Between the weight of the water, and the height of the cinder...
My husband just couldn't wait and so we currently have 33 Cornish x chicks in our basement. They'll be three weeks old tomorrow and I'm dying to get them out of the house. We just cleaned out all the bedding in their pen yesterday and it smelled horrible again when I got home today from work...
I've used pine shavings with my chicks with no issues. I buys the cheapest shavings from our local feed store and the shavings are pretty large, bigger than what I remember using when we had hamsters as kids, so I'm not too worried about a chick eating it.
Our 6 day old babies have recently discovered that they can hop and flap their wings around. It's very uncoordinated, but adorable. I started noticing them scratching in the litter at 3-4 days old. Amazing how their instincts kick in.
We're looking to do the same thing. Our babies will be a week old tomorrow, and are currently residing in three brooders in our living room/kitchen with a dozen in each. They are quickly outgrowing the brooders, and we're trying to figure out what to do with them next. My husband built a hoop...
We're raising our first chicks (cornish x) and all has been well so far, until this evening when I noticed a sort of wheezing/coughing sound coming from some of them. They are nice and warm, I've been changing their bedding every day, and making sure they have fresh food and water. From what...