Chicks and dust! Arghhhhh!

[darbella]

WOW, some good ideas here. I was actually discussing the air cleaner machine with a friend this morning...just what I need, one more addition to the electric bill!

AT Hagen, where do you brood your chicks then? Are you in a warmer climate?

Also, the furnace filters may be on my shopping list today! Thanks and keep the ideas coming!

 

[sgtmom52]

A lot of the chick dust isn't caused by the bedding but the process of getting new feathers. You could try using the furnace filter on a box fan so the dusty air is sucked through the filter ~ DH uses the same thing to help keep the dust down when working with wood in the garage.

 

[gritsar]

A.T. Hagan :

I stopped brooding chicks in the house long ago for this very reason.

Exactly! This old house generates enough dust between living on a dirt road and just being old, without adding chicks to the mixture. Last batch was brooded outside, soon to arrive batch will be brooded outside and all future chicks as well.​

 

[biddybird]

I'm in Texas and keep my brooders in my study, reason being that with the outside temp going up and up, I can keep them from getting to HOT!
I hate the dust too and my new bator is in that room and I know you need to incubate in a different one, but it didn't seem to be a problem until last week. The chicks I had in there were about 4 wks and I think they just got to a point that it was too much. From now on I am going to move out chicks after about a week, when I put shaving in. It is hot enought now that I'm just going to plan on the heat at night only and hope they are warm enough through the day.

 

[gritsar]

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I can understand where you're coming from on the hot weather. Goodness how can it be this hot and not even June??
When my chicks arrive in early June they'll be on the screened porch in their brooder for about three weeks, then it's off to the coop - seperated from the big birds of course.

 

[scbatz33]

The majority of that "dust" is from the chicks feathering out. It's chick dander. It's a pin in the arse, but I have heard that using a purifier will cut back on it. It drives me up a wall but I am with out electric in my barn so they have to be inside for now.

 

[NurseNettie]

The dust comes from a combination of lots of things, BUT, a LOT of the dust is from their feather sheaths--- those plastic-ey looking coverings over the feathers that are growing in. That's something you can't do a thing about-- it comes off as the feather is growing in, and ends up in dust like pieces, and flaky pieces of very light "stuff".

I don't keep chicks in the house anymore, unless it's only over night ( ie, a planned hatch for a chicken swap) because, 2 years after having 3 hatches inside,,,, I'm still cleaning dust. Feather dust, mash dust, shavings dust, etc..... They stay on our sunporch now, or in a big brooder in the barn.

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[NurseNettie]

I'm not sure I'd invest in the air cleaner for chicken dust and dander-- there's way too much of it for the air cleaner/ filter to handle. We run one all the time due to our cockatoos ( 3 of them, very dander-ey birds) and it barely touches what we've got from them. When I had chicks in the house and was running it,it clogged almost daily!!

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[Mrs. Green Thumbs]

We put an old upcycled window screen on top of the brooder and while it didn't keep all of the dust contained it did seem to help a lot. My TV is right next to the brooder box and the girls are 8 weeks and I just almost a week ago noticed extra dust developing on the black TV.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

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Yes, I am in Florida.

But so long as you can keep them dry and out of the wind the type of brooder that I use can successfully keep chicks to well below freezing.

This is where I got the plans: http://www.plamondon.com/brooder.shtml

And it sits inside of a larger plywood box as you can see here:

I've brooded chicks down to twenty degrees in that one and it could have gone lower.

It sits in an open bay of my workshop. Hardware cloth cover over the top to keep out predators.