Brooder bedding change

[TheCookyChickenLady]

Hello! I have three 4 day old ducklings living on towels in a 3.3’x 1.7’ brooder. I am currently changing the bedding once at night and again in mid day, is this good?

 

[Yardfulla poopers]

That's better than I did . Seriously though, that should be fine as long as they are not sitting on soaking wet bedding. It's hard to keep up with the mess they make.

 

[TheCookyChickenLady]

That's better than I did . Seriously though, that should be fine as long as they are not sitting on soaking wet bedding. It's hard to keep up with the mess they make.

Thanks! I can definitely relate, I’ve had chicks before but the sheer amount of poop ducklings(and ducks I assume) is frankly a little wild! I knew what I was getting into to though lol!
Did you use bath/sink towels as well? I am having some issues properly getting the poop and dried mush feed off the towels outside. Any tips would be greatly appreciated! I have been just using the hose and that normally dislodges stuff fine but I can’t seem to get all the poop off. I could use my washer but that seems like a last resort as I feel a tad gross about doing that.

 

[LT71689]

I think you're going to find the space a bit small and the bedding hard to keep up with pretty quickly. Whats your next plan - bigger brooder, moving out to the coop, when?

I had mine on pine chips from the start and used a cat litter scoop to sift the big lumps out and fluff the whole box over twice a day. If they've got a while before moving into the coop I'd consider a bigger brooder - itll help spread everything out more which means it stays drier longer. My two started in a big plastic tote and they were soaking through their bedding every day, moved them to a 2.5x6 foot brooder (later upgraded to 9 feet) at around a week and a half and it cut down on bedding soaking considerably. In 9 weeks I used about one and a half of the big pine chip bales and *most* of the first one was wasted on trying to make the little tote box work. If they'd had more space for it to dry out it wouldnt have needed a full reset every day.

The towels I used when I let them roam around the house went into the washing machine on the highest hottest settings and everything came out clean, but that was a LOT of electric, water, and soap for every single day. Some folks use puppy pads but that's also an expensive option.

 

[TheCookyChickenLady]

I think you're going to find the space a bit small and the bedding hard to keep up with pretty quickly. Whats your next plan - bigger brooder, moving out to the coop, when?

I had mine on pine chips from the start and used a cat litter scoop to sift the big lumps out and fluff the whole box over twice a day. If they've got a while before moving into the coop I'd consider a bigger brooder - itll help spread everything out more which means it stays drier longer. My two started in a big plastic tote and they were soaking through their bedding every day, moved them to a 2.5x6 foot brooder (later upgraded to 9 feet) at around a week and a half and it cut down on bedding soaking considerably. In 9 weeks I used about one and a half of the big pine chip bales and *most* of the first one was wasted on trying to make the little tote box work. If they'd had more space for it to dry out it wouldnt have needed a full reset every day.

The towels I used when I let them roam around the house went into the washing machine on the highest hottest settings and everything came out clean, but that was a LOT of electric, water, and soap for every single day. Some folks use puppy pads but that's also an expensive option.

Thanks for your response! I do plan on moving to a larger brooder in the next couple of days. I don’t mind the cleaning but it is stressful for the ducklings so it would be useful to cut down on it. They were on pine shavings the first day and one of them full on tried to gulp down a shaving and may a have ingested a small piece as she was doing a prolonged drinking motion with her head back for multiple minutes a couple times that days. She hasn’t had any of theses symptoms anymore but I do think I want to have them be bigger before they go back on shavings. I think she would learn that they aren’t food but I am still a little worried. Due to our weather(I live in central Texas) I think they could go outside to the coop I have pretty early. It really won’t get down below 50 at night for another month or so but I am not super adamant on it. The elavteted nest box/ roost area I may have to modify. Anyway, I was thinking I’ll upgrade to a 2x6 brooder as a larger tub won’t fit in my space.

 

[TheCookyChickenLady]

Thanks for your response! I do plan on moving to a larger brooder in the next couple of days. I don’t mind the cleaning but it is stressful for the ducklings so it would be useful to cut down on it. They were on pine shavings the first day and one of them full on tried to gulp down a shaving and may a have ingested a small piece as she was doing a prolonged drinking motion with her head back for multiple minutes a couple times that days. She hasn’t had any of theses symptoms anymore but I do think I want to have them be bigger before they go back on shavings. I think she would learn that they aren’t food but I am still a little worried. Due to our weather(I live in central Texas) I think they could go outside to the coop I have pretty early. It really won’t get down below 50 at night for another month or so but I am not super adamant on it. The elavteted nest box/ roost area I may have to modify. Anyway, I was thinking I’ll upgrade to a 2x6 brooder as a larger tub won’t fit in my space.

I forgot to mention, the bedding isn’t actually wet when I change it, they keep it pretty dry with a water catcher under the water it more just covered it quite a lot of poop.