chick grit

[rosemarythyme]

Can you just offer them clean sandbox type sand or do you need to buy parakeet type grit for chicks?

Any hard rock about this size will do:

But reading lots of entries here on BYC, I am now convinced that DE is a terrible idea, hurting the lungs of chickens and chicken keepers alike. So, Keep that bag in case of ant infestation, maybe?

That's what I did with the DE I bought. Not sure if it actually killed the ants, but made them relocate at the very least, so good enough for me.

 

[Boppo]

You have your chicks?!

No, not yet. They are due at the end of April. I am getting more excited, and starting to get things more ready. Friends came over today to help assemble the coop (chicken house). The pen part will come next week. I have a good number of things but suspect I will find myself running around in a panic over something simple that I didn't know about or that got overlooked.

Your chicks are not here yet, either? It's being a warm, early spring, mostly (she says on a chilly, wet windy day). But so many springs, we would not be this warm yet, and it made so much sense back when I ordered chicks, to take the late April date they offered.

How are you? Waiting is hard!

 

[Boppo]

Thank you for the helpful illustration, with measurements.

 

[Devorah]

I gave them a big bowl so it can double as a dust bath. Lulu was the first to see the bathing potential yesterday. Everyone else just picks at it. Mine are 10 days old and I gave them grit in day 3 just because that was when I got them.
They only need a tiny amount but I had it spare and figured they would enjoy playing in it.

What was in your dust bath besides sand? Did you scatter grit in their food or on the floor of the brooder?

 

[Devorah]

Yeah. And a separate bowl of grit and some grit scattered in the real dirt.
This works great though so I will use this method again.
A 5lb bag of grit has lasted me two chick batches (I only get a few chicks at a time) and even using this method I have plenty left in the bag for another 2-3 batches of babies.

Oh here I see the answer - I had forgotten it!

 

[RoyalChick]

Oh here I see the answer - I had forgotten it!

My Hooligans are nearly 6 weeks old now and refuse to eat out of the feeder. Their preference is to empty the feeder on the floor and then dig through the bedding for the food. So now I sprinkle grit on their floor and hope for the best.