Bedding for brooder

[chickensarenew]

I'm getting 10 day old chick's in may. Now I see some people who have brooder with shavings and some with puppy pads and some with paper towel. Now to start out for the first week or so which is best? Also if I use shavings how deep should I have it? I want to do this right and have clean up convenient. I'm starting in a 110 litre tote and then when they are bigger I should have a watermelon box from my grocery store to move them into. When they are in there I will be using shavings for sure.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

No one way is"best", just different ways folks do things. I am in the shavings from day one camp myself. One thing to definitely not do is newspaper. With 10 chicks a tote will be too small in very short order, I would start with the big box from the first day

 

[TLWR]

I start on towels for the first couple of days and then swap to sand.

 

[chickensarenew]

No one way is"best", just different ways folks do things. I am in the shavings from day one camp myself. One thing to definitely not do is newspaper. With 10 chicks a tote will be too small in very short order, I would start with the big box from the first day

How deep of shavings 2 or 3" or deeper?

 

[dheltzel]

I use totes with newspaper covered by paper towels for about a week. I want them to be able to recognize food and not try to eat the shavings or be scattered across too large an area. They get much messier as they get older and once they are too messy for paper, I switch them to shavings and move them to a larger brooder as well. This works for me and I have started (literally) thousands of chicks using this method.