bottom covering for brooder?

[dretd]

You can use all of the above posted substrate (paper towel, cloth towel, pine shavings etc), which I have done.

I am hleping a friend with a couple of Sebrights plus Pekin duck (not sure why I said yes--its time for them to go to her house and she asked if I had ideas on how to sneak them in to the yard without her husband knowing becasue she forgot to mention the purchase to him--it all becomes clear

) and I have moved over to puppy pee pads becasue the duck is soooo messsssy!

The last time I brooded chicks I ended up going with a mixtre of sand and peatmoss and quite liked the substrate. I think I'll stick with that over pine shavings if I do it again.

 

[mandelyn]

I use old towels for ducks until 3 weeks, then it's pine. They're tall enough by then to use my water-catcher that avoids a mess of the pine shavings.

Chicken chicks get a towel for 1 week while they learn to eat, then they go on play sand. No dust, they can play in it, easy to sift out poo, no stink!

Ducks get a new towel 3 times a day, chicks get a new one once a day. Big difference in poops, and water use.

Ducks have a wire floor brooder, so that the towel doesn't stink right away. Chickens get linoleum.

I've raised so many batches of chickens.... I don't know why I didn't try play sand sooner.

For the sand, it has to be play sand that has been washed, dried, ect. Every other type is way too dusty for a brooder box.

 

[Birdman18]

Thanks Again for all the replies, their very helpful !

I was thinking if I could use straw as bedding for the chicks when they get bigger instead of using pine shavings? I rather use what I have on hand then to buy something else.

Thanks so much!

 

[RonC]

Some do use straw as bedding but I think most use the pine shavings. They are about $6.00 for a big bale of them at TSC. Have heard some negatives against the straw but never tried it myself. I just used 4-6 inches of the shavings and would stir them around daily while the chicks were in their pen outside to keep from scaring them. First shavings lasted about 2 weeks then as they got bigger and made more poop it went to a weekly change. Has anyone mentioned they poop ALOT!

 

[Birdman18]

Thanks so much I appreciate it!

Oh yes I remember in my past hatches, those chicks sure do poop ALOT!! Then again they are baby chicks.

 

[zooweemama]

You can use all of the above posted substrate (paper towel, cloth towel, pine shavings etc), which I have done.

I am hleping a friend with a couple of Sebrights plus Pekin duck (not sure why I said yes--its time for them to go to her house and she asked if I had ideas on how to sneak them in to the yard without her husband knowing becasue she forgot to mention the purchase to him--it all becomes clear

) and I have moved over to puppy pee pads becasue the duck is soooo messsssy!

The last time I brooded chicks I ended up going with a mixtre of sand and peatmoss and quite liked the substrate. I think I'll stick with that over pine shavings if I do it again.

I had some puppy pads leftover from my ducks and they are holding up longer than the paper towels. So the puppy pads + a sprinkle of pine shavings is working better for me now than even the paper towels + pine because they eventually tore up the paper towels. LOL Not so for the puppy pad (yet).

And I did ducks first 12 ducklings, then 8 more. All within 3 weeks of each other. In my house. Oh sweet heavens what a mess! A lot of work. I am quite liking the chickens right now. Ha!

 

[Campesina]

I would have never guessed those sweet little ducklings could do such a thing.