Best brooder floor for baby chicks?

[mrsruvi]

i have alfalfa in mine. the chickens eat the bedding a little but they have something to do all day. and since its edible im not worried about it going into the water. I change the water 2x a day though...

 

[billfields]

Try raising the water. Set the waterer up on a couple of bricks or sections of 2x4. Just make sure they can reach it. They are going to get whatever you put in the brooder into the water

but this helps. Good thing about shavings is if they spill water, the shavings adsorb it nicely

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Quote:
The problem is that before I put the waterers up on bricks, I would come out to find the shavings had "soaked up" all the water in the lip of the waterer. So, the chicks were incredibly thirsty. (They cannot run out of water.)

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

If you are going to use sand in the brooder, I would still cover it with paper towels for a couple of days, because they might fill up on the sand until they know what their food is.

 

[gale65]

After doing a ton of reading here, we've decided on equine pine wood pellets for bedding. We'll put the waterer and feeder on bricks once the chicks are tall enough.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Quote:
That's what my feed store has their chicks on. I have often thought about trying them.