brooder bedding

[Teresa D]

I vote for pine pellets. They soak up messes better than anything else, are cheap and don't get all over the place like shavings.
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[jreardon1918]

This will be our 2nd time brooding. The first time used a plastic tub -->cardboard box and heat bulb and pine shavings. Had some losses and the house was a mess. I think we kept them way too hot. And in the house way too long. This time. We will use the MHP, with paper towels in a box for a couple days. More towels will be added before the chicks arrive this afternoon. Then they go out to the run. So they will be on the same deep litter as the hens. I left the winter plastic curtains to shield from the wind.

 

[spartacus_63]

For me what drives floor coverings is what is healthy for the chicks and easiest for me. In the past I have used pine shavings and shredded paper. The drawbacks there have always been that they always end up in the water. This year I am using the rubberish shelf liners. I also use them in the incubator from lockdown to hatch. THe downside to the shelf liners is they are not absorbant and odor can become an issue quickly. On the most recent brood, I put shredded paper on the floor and the shelf liner over the paper. So far this has worked pretty well. When it comes to cleaning the shelf liner, I use a 3 gallon bucket with warm soapy water. It is fairly simplistic and keeps the brooder cleaner IMO.

As a side note, I never worried to much about chicks eating things off the floor. This is how they learn and I've never lost one from eating paper or shredded pine. My chicks also go to the coop at two or three weeks depending on how motivated I am.

 

[FuzzyCritters]

I use fleece pads for when the chicks are really little, for the first week or so, and then move the chicks onto shavings. I have tried to use horse pellet once, and it failed, because they absorbed all the moisture and that made them puff out into a big mess that was hard to clean. I have also tried puppy pads, but the chicks tore them up into shreds, so my best experience has been fleece then shavings

 

[rc4u]

straw hands down on top of chips on dirt. none better

 

[TropicalBabies]

I use old towels cut to small, shake out poop and food on lawn reuse till it is time (usually 2 days) to rinse, wash and reuse- like cloth diapers on a painted floor that I can scrape. I hate one use plastic anything, like the puppy pads and lessen my carbon footprint by NOT buying shavings, as cool as they are. One less thing to ship.

 

[Frenchen1]

An adult incontenence pad, plastic side down, paper side up, covered with a 2 inch layer of Bermuda Grass hay works well im a plastic tub, and the brooder box. That will make the box absorbent and nest like. To clean, just pick up the pad by the sides, roll it all up and put it in a garbage bag,and toss it out. Quick and easy. In the tub, we use a heating plate loosly taped to the side of the tub. In the brooder, we use a heat lamp.
It has never gotten too hot, or even came near starting a fire. They are in the tub for two or three days, and then in the brooder for three weeks. After that,they go to a covered, enclosed, chicken run, inside a little wooden house with an A frame enclosure, all using hay as bedding. When the chicks are six weeks old they go to regular coverd and partial chickens runs, with hay over dirt flooring, and covered nest box tub housing

 

[MaGlockner]

ok, i've still got my babes in the brooder at almost 4 and 3 weeks. I've been using puppy pads and chopped straw. I clean it every day or every other, and it's been fine. No smell, happy chicks.

 

[EarlJ]

I've always used pine shavings... but in the last week I had a couple Jersey Giant chicks die, I'm thinking from ingesting too many pine bits. Helpful to hear what others are using, because I'm looking at alternatives now.

For my newly hatched Guinea keets, I knew pine bedding was out, so I used an old pair of pants. They're doing fine with them. Considering using other old clothing for the rest now too. You can get clothing really cheap from thrift stores, if you're willing to go there these days.

 

[Dottie the Chicken]

I use newspaper. This is the kind of brooder I currently have: https://www.enasco.com/p/Galvanized-Chick-Brooder-Box+C35710?searchText=brooder

I can put the newspaper either in the pen, or on the tray below.