Brooder bedding

[coolcanoechic]

Loved your video! Your birds are so pretty! Great brooder too...puts my 50gal rubbermaid tub to shame!

There's nothing wrong with a good old fashioned rubbermaid tub. You can wash it! My brooder will be dismantled and stored away....and perhaps repurposed later on for something else. Waste not want not. Hopefully it won't be too poopy before that happens

 

[Red Barn Farms]

I guess I'm lucky to have a wood chipper shredder so I just set it to course and make my own!

 

[acemario]

I used shredded newspaper. It worked amazing! Just put it through the paper shredder and into the brooder!

 

[Rock Home Isle]

I guess I'm lucky to have a wood chipper shredder so I just set it to course and make my own!

That would be the bomb.

 

[MarineCorpFarmr]

We have switched from shavings to equine pellet bedding in both our coop and our brooders. One thing that helps alot with the dust and any issue with birds trying to eat the pellets its to wet them down just as you would in a horse stall. they swell and break apart and really have become a wonder easy to manage bedding option for us. Hope the info helps

 

[mandelyn]

This thread is way old, but I gave thought to wood pellets. Then opted for play sand. The sand sifts easy for cleaning, the washed playsand isn't dusty (cheaper sand is very dusty! It has to be washed) and I'm on the 3rd batch of chicks on the first bag of sand. So that's... 10 weeks on the same bag of sand. Cost effective! It was $3.50 about, fills a 3x3 brooder about 2 1/2 inches deep. Holds heat under the light but isn't a fire hazard.

The pellet bedding needs reduced to it's fineness by adding water and breaking it up. Just dump the play sand in and let it dry, stirring to help with drying. The pellets are pricey, play sand is not. Pellets still need removed, they cannot be sanitized between batches of chicks. Play sand, I pulled it out, spread it on a tarp in the sun, mixed a bleach solution into a spray bottle, and treated it that way. Or, a new bag for $3.50.

Sand can be treated with DE, can be used for dust bathing, and acts as a source of grit. When done brooding, dump it right into the adult chicken run, or transfer it with the babies to the new coop.

It dries poo quickly, and acts like cat litter. Sticks and dries to the yucky poo. Their feet stay clean!

I use it starting the 3rd week. The first 2 weeks they're on towels, learning to eat and drink.

Just sand and poo go to the compost, since I use shavings still in the runs and coop I have enough bedding in there already. Keeping the brooder as sand has really reduced waste. I empty out about 1 coffee container of waste once a week. Compared to a whole garbage bag of shavings.

 

[beaglady]

Thanks to this thread, I have about 18 baby muscovies on sand in the brooder. I can't rave about it enough as a bedding for ducks. They usually turn shavings or wood chips into a stinking mess in just a few days, but sand lasted about 2 weeks before I had to scoop out the crusty parts and start over.

 

[TTeddy]

You are talking about chickens, right?
Why would you use wood pellets,chips or whatever?
I grew up with chickens all my life and have never heard of such a thing.
Plain sand. What's wrong with plain old sand? I don't get it

Wood chips/pellets are great for fleas to breed in. Fleas love it!!! Fleas are not good for chookens

 

[weaversfarm]

Here is a picture of my brooder. It is 4 X 8 feet and can be split in two. I use one section when they are day old and then as they grow out I take out the middle board and they have the whole thing to grow out in until they are ready to go to the coop. Since these pictures were taken, we also put up 3 inch high boards around the outside to keep bedding in the brooder. The light hangs above it and there are 2 top pieces when they get old enough to fly. When the birds get moved out to the coop this will be taken out and powerwashed with a bleach solution and allowed to dry outside. To be honest, I have never given sand a thought....any sites I have gone to say to use pine shavings, never cedar and never newspaper as the ink is poisonous to birds. I think using sand is a great, inexpensive idea and will try that when my pine shavings are gone.

 

[walady944]

thanks so much for this wonderful idea of using sand; sounds great and is what this new chicken lady will do.
Lynn