Brooder dust and managing it.

[archeryrob]

I was very happy with my collapsible brooder and Ohio brooder for raising chicks. The problem I have with it though is it was in the third bay in the garage. My truck in the second and wifes van in the first. My truck, partially her van and everything in the garage looks like someone tried opening a flour bag in front of a van. Between them running and scratching in the pine chips they just put dust on everything.

Anyone one have any creative ways of controlling the dust from a brooder in the garage like this?

For reference the top has open doors like this. I considered tarping it off but the girls overruled me on it.

 

[igorsMistress]

That dust comes with chickens period. You can try using pine pellets, they make a little less dust than flakes.

 

[rosemarythyme]

This is why I have my brooder outdoors, so the dust is a non issue!

 

[Buckeye Amy]

Par for the course when it comes to raising poultry. Your best option is to brood them outside, which is what I do.

 

[Eri_Oak]

I'm not sure if you have access to industrial hemp bedding where you live, but there is zero dust with associated with it.

It's quite pricey if you can't find it locally. I purchased mine from Amazon and was $60 for a 33lb bail. I'm three weeks into brooding my five chicks and I'm about 1/3-1/2 of the way through it.

We are brooding in a small spare bathroom, and my husband has pretty severe allergies, so having a dust-free environment was super important to us. The hemp has worked like a charm! It is very absorbent and smells nice too.

 

[One Lucky Momma]

After we figured out what folks meant when they were talking about chick dust, we began running the shop air filter. It didn’t eliminate the dust completely but you wouldn’t have suspected that from the looks of the filter.
Of course it has to be close enough to the chicks to gain any benefit and that means a brood of chicks in the shop... somewhat better than the dining room

 

[humblehillsfarm]

Yeahhhh when my bf and I planned the ongoing build of our new coop, I requested it to be large enough to act as one or two coops so if I need to brood anymore, I can brood them in the new coop. I've raised them in my bathroom and my garage and they are such dusty little things! I love them though. If you don't have a swanky filter like @One Lucky Momma, you can try a couple of HEPA air purifiers. I keep them in my house anyways to help with pet dander and they really filter out a lot of stuff!

 

[mcdze]

nothing much you can do short of a different location .. but .. if temps can be managed with a sheet over the brooder that will work .. i usually keep chicks in a box in my living room for the first 2 weeks or so and a towel over it is what i do .. then they have to be moved ..

 

[SnootyHen]

I wish I knew. It got so bad with the last batch it started setting off my smoke alarm because it was plugged!!!

 

[DuckYouMan]

A pretty cool thing I've seen lately on youtube are people making filter systems out of box fans and furnace filters. They will make a box, put the filter on one end.. you know what. I'll just link it.

This is the extremely simple version. It does work really well and you can even buy filters for box fans now. The furnace filters work best imo.

Here is the more put together version