Bedding?

[cafarmgirl]

Want yet another opinion lol?! Well here it is anyway. I've raised chicks for years, they go on pine shavings from day one. Yes they peck and scratch through the shavings, I have never had one eat shavings or die from eating shavings. But if it worries you go with hay/straw/chopped straw is nice.

Don't use a lid for feed, they are only going to climb in it, scratch in it, poop in it and dump it. Get a small chick feeder and set it up on a small block of wood. This will catch feed they bill out, they'll go ahead and eat most of it that way. Same with the water, set it up a little and they won't scratch so much bedding into it.

How much odor there is depends on how many chicks and how much floor space they have, and how often you clean. The more crowded they are the more you have to clean.

Make sure they have enough space for the amount of time you intend them to stay in their brooder. Chicks need at least 1 square foot of floor space per chick and they grow out of that very quickly.

 

[mrchicks]

We all do it a bit different, and all are successful at raising chicks. Pick and choose what will work best for your situation, and you are all set.

 

[arkwelded]

i start them in a 18" x 36" terrarium from my son, they out grew this in about a week and a half
at that point i move them to a box in the garage made out of a couple sheets of plywood.
the box is 5' x 3' x 2' high with 2 roosts in it.
3 lb hanging feeder
1 gallon water, use the bottom of a 5 gal bucket cut at 2" high under the water to catch any spillage
a 250w red heat lamp, i also wired up an outlet with a dimmer switch to be able to lower the temp of the brooder
as for bedding i use pine shavings

this set up is very cheap ($60-100), does not take up much space and is great for 10-15 chicks up to 2 months at which point they should be ready to move outside to a run.