Changing litter

[cori1023]

Hi BYC friends.
The chicks are hopefully coming today and I wanted to know how often is it advised to change the litter in the brooder ?
I know it's very important to keep it clean. Would you say to remove and add clean pine shavings daily ?
TIA

 

[sonjab314]

I think it depends on the size of your brooder. Mines HUGE so I only change it out twice a week but if you have lots of chick in a smaller space Id clean it daily.

 

[vehve]

I'd change it when it starts to smell. If you put down a couple of inches of the stuff, you can just turn it around once per day. If they get loose poops, you can remove those, but I don't see any point in changing the bedding daily. When I kept chicks inside, I changed it maybe two times during the 5-6 weeks they were in the brooder, now that I'm hatching with broodies in the coop, I've had the chicks hatch in 2 month old bedding and kept the same stuff for another three months in there before changing, even then it wouldn't have had to be changed yet.

Keeping the birds in too clean of a environment won't allow them to develop any kind of natural resistance, and personally I would get some soil from your run to introduce into the brooder at quite a early stage to get them familiar with the local bacteria. That is just my opinion though, and many will disagree.

 

[cori1023]

Great info thx everyone

 

[cori1023]

The girls are home and I made my own brooder with a tub but have the tub in a much larger "play pen" with a zip top and bottom..
I don't have any wire in the flooring just some place mats for traction, news apple rider that and pine shavings on top on the mats..
I can take them out of the tub and give them more running room but wanted to know of any good suggestions to possibly keep the bottom dry?
So excited

 

[cori1023]

I also put in some grass I pulled up with a ball of dirt on the bottom .. They went nuts over it .. I did add a lil dish aside with some chick grit being I added the dirt/grass and was not sure if they find a bug or needed some grit to help with whatever they pick on.. Do you think that's ok? The love it