brooder bedding

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I've always used the fine shavings, in the big bags for horse bedding. For a couple of days i will put paper towels down from the feeder to the brooder or heat lamp area, with the feed scattered on them leading to the feeder. After two days, it's just pine shavings in my brooder, which is a old 100 gallon water trough. At about three weeks, the chicks move to their separate area in the coop with more shavings and their heater.
Mary
 
I use the same pine shavings that are for my mouse. I put 2 layers of newspaper and then a layer of pine shavings on top for traction. I add more pine shavings if that layer gets wet. I clean once a week, or when it gets too smelly (whichever comes sooner) and I dump it all out in their run. I put newspaper in because we only have 1 bag of pine shavings and must ration.

I only put a few sheets of paper towel underneath the layers of newspaper where their waterer is. Paper towels are indigestible, non water soluble, and I'd get worried if the chicks ended up eating some.

Tried out dry hay but it didn't really work well and I think it advanced the smell. I used to work at a horse farm and they had amazing bedding there for their chicks & horses, wish I knew what it was because it absorbed smell efficiently. Some sort of shaving.
 
NewChkinTown said:
So I've been searching the threads and I can't seem to find a definitive answer to brooder bedding. I know it is mostly personal preference, but I like clarity. I have a friend who only uses newspaper in her brooders (but then I read it's too slippery), I google bedding and read that someone else uses plastic shelf liner and paper towel (paper towel is like gold right now, along with TP so I don't want to waste what stock I have and I don;t have shelf liner), more people on google seem to use sand (I research and find that most sand has silica, which is a carcinogen, so i dont want to use that). HELP.
Someone please lay it out for me lol. I read people like shavings/wood chips but that they are a pain to clean. I want/need something easy and simple to clean and use.
Click to expand...
i use the pine chip bedding. It absorbs well freshens the coop and is easy to clean up. You can get a packed cube from Walmart for about $8. It will cover a 6x8 coop just fine. I use hay in the nest boxes.
 
I am only 2 weeks into this, with 7 peeps, but here is what I did and it has worked. First week: paper towels...on top of textured shelf liner (prevents leg injuries, easy to clean)...but, after the first week, I switched to wood shavings. Why? Poop was sticking to their toes, even with changing paper towels 3 x a day (yes, I hoarded paper towels)….I now use newspaper on the bottom, topped with a 1-layer of paper towels and then a layer of soft natural wood shavings (from Petco)….Now, I have clean feet, they can scratch and clean up is a breeze. I just roll up the paper and shavings and throw in the compost bin. Wood shavings are a bit dusty and light, but it helps the chicks to scratch off the poop so they don't get issues with that. After 2 weeks, I read leg issues shouldn't be a problem as their feet are more developed and they are more agile. I have my chicks in my master bathroom. It is clean, fan kept on....window open occasionally when I go in to do my care and no smell so far. Best wishes.
 

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