Anyone use these pens for baby chicks?

[Swilso3]

Last year I purchased an enclosure from Amazon. It was called Summerhawk Ranch Small Animal Enclosure. It worked really well for a brooder. It has lots of room. Would not want it in my house but it worked great in the
garage.

Hi I'm planning on hatching in a couple months. Wanted to know if anyone has experience with this sort of set up.

Want to keep them in my spare room to age 8 weeks. Will hopefully have approx 20 birds.

My main question is, how do you clean it? I have a few ideas but I want to know what other people have done.

You guys ROCK. thank IA

I just use square clear plastic bins that my hubby built a screen that lays Over the top. I cant stand them past a week in my spare room. I use large pine shavings in them. I can smell them after 2 weeks. I keep the A/C cut off from the vent. Run heat lamp over them.

 

[anno1]

I've only raised from chicks once, and here's what I did, for what it's worth.

I got 7 chicks, and they start to stink after about 4 days. As soon as they start eating, their poop starts stinking. I had saved a couple of larger boxes, (the larger one was maybe 4 1/2 feet long by 2 or so feet wide) I started with a smaller one, and moved them over to the larger after a few days. I had a heater plate, which worked great. It eliminates the risk of the heat lamp. The chicks would run under and out again, as they were hot/cool. I kept a couple of layers of paper towels (maybe 6 layers to start) on the bottom of the box, with chicken bedding on top, and a couple of times a day I just pulled out the paper towels, and then replace. It was easy. I imagine you could do the same with newspaper--if you get newspapers.
As they started to attempt to fly, I attached bird netting with butterfly clips, to the top of the box. I kept them in a spare bathroom. It was pretty dusty/smelly by the time I moved them out to the coop (within two weeks)
Since they were the first chicks I'd gotten (I had chickens at my previous house, but this is the first group here) and I got them in June, I was able to move them directly into the coop after about two weeks. Thank goodness! I wouldn't want them in the house much longer than that.

 

[pslane]

How big is that? Chicks grow quickly and at 8 wks, 20 birds will be requiring a lot of space. I cant help you with that product. I built (2) 3x5 brooders that i raise my chicks in, but at 8 wks they are really crowded and are moved into an 8'x32' flight pen.

 

[pslane]

I do it the old fashioned way. A wire cage with a light bulb hanging down. Covered with a dark sheet. Newspaper and paper towels on the bottom. Just raised 9 from November hatch and now I have 7 in the same cage.

 

[JudithM]

Hi I'm planning on hatching in a couple months. Wanted to know if anyone has experience with this sort of set up.

Want to keep them in my spare room to age 8 weeks. Will hopefully have approx 20 birds.

My main question is, how do you clean it? I have a few ideas but I want to know what other people have done.

You guys ROCK. thank IA

I have not used that kind but I do use the plastic panels. They are less expensive and I put Easy Liner smooth side shelf liner under them. It is easy to clean and you can get several widths depending on what size your pen is OR you can cut a couple of strips and tape together on the bottom with duck tape. It is washable and I use it over and over. I have them inside and keep a heat plate on them for the first three weeks and since the room stays about 72 degrees, they really don't need the heat much longer. I have also taken some scrap boards and made a loose frame for them panels so they don't slide around so much and let food bits out.

 

[oldhen2345]

Here is an excellent older post with illustrating photos on Mama Heating Pad. It may be the one that guided me when I started brooding chicks.

The important feature you want to look for is a heating pad that operates continuously and doesn't have the automatic shutoff feature.

I just molded some hardware cloth I had hanging around to form the cave. On top of that I put the heating pad and then cover that with some cheap remnants of fleece. Yes, the chicks will poop all over it! I rinse it off or throw it out since it gets pretty cheap in the warm months.

I also got a cheap feather duster, sawed off most of the handle and I put that in the cave for the chicks to snuggle into.

This sounds like what I do, except I don't use the featherduster- might try that, though. I usually have about 6 chicks at a time and use a cardboard Dress box from Uline. put it on a tarp to protect my rug. I cover it with netting. Works perfectly. I use the Mama Cave and they generally love it. At about 2 weeks I put in a couple of roosts. By 4-5 weeks I am more than ready to get them outside to the baby barn- a 6x6 ft wooden square covered on all sides and top with hardwire and a dog kennel inside. They stay here until they mingle with the big girls. I let them free range at 8 weeks and block the door so the big girls can't get in, but the littles can. I make sure they get locked in at night. Eventually, one night, I will go out and they will all be in the big coop.

 

[timmysparky]

I've raised quite a few birds. I've used all kinds of bedding, my favorite is sand. Play sand to be specific. It can be had from Home Depot or any major hardware store. A fine mesh screen scooper will sift out all the feed and everything else those little rascals will get into. I brooded in my house 1 time, that's all it will take to understand why these remain barnyard animals. They are filthy!!! Keep them warm and check the water a couple times a day if not more. Enjoy it bc it'll be gone before you know it!

 

[jgarner1327]

I covered a large 3'x3'x4' puppy crate, top, sides, and two doors, with 1/2 " hardware cloth, attached with wire and J-clips. They are very safe. I use a desk lamp and continually replace bottom lined with cardboard or newspaper, but they need it clean and dry so I change it daily. For a water dish, I use lids with marbles in them for the first week or so, then as they grow you can use lids or shallow bowls without marbles.

 

[Cilenia]

I bought and use this Pet Playpen on Amazon.
Keeps all the shavings in and works great. Waterproof bottom and zippered shade screen top for later when I take them outside to acclimate or to keep escape artists in.

 

[Steve2saint]

I built a 3'd 4' broader our of 2x2s and 1/2 hardware clothe. We placed it on our kitchen floor, and the dog played babysitter. I put 2-1/2" dowel rodsabout 8" from each end. They would eventually fly from one rod to the other. Later when they started to fly and sit on the top rails ( I made it 2' deep) that was when we moved them to the glassed in porch that had indoor/outdoor carpeting. We would use my ship vac to clean the cage and floor on both the kitchen and the porch. We also used a 4" putty knife to scrape the floor of the box. The contents of the vacuum and the scraping from the floor were dumped in our compost pile. The kitchen floor we mopped up with bleach water twice a day, and when the moved to the porch, we would shampoo the carpet once a week with bleach water. You could walk into our house and never would know we had chicks in the house. When the got a good growth of feathers, and the weather got a little warmer we moved them to their new home, the coop. The coop is inside a 20' x 50' run. Sometimes we let them out while we work in the garden or yard. The nice thing is the 16 chickens (our kids) are very sociable and like to stay near us. If they do start to wonder, we would just corral them back to where we wanted them. When we wanted them back in the chicken run, we just get a couple slices of wheat bread and they will follow you ANY where.