Chicks with crooked toes on wire????

[ghunt507]

Does anyone have experince with chicks toes being crooked from 1/2x1/2 wire brooder floor.

 

[Judy]

No experience, but I have read that chickens don't do well raised on wire because their toes can get caught.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I raise mine on 1/2" x 1/2" wire and have not had a problem with crooked toes. Mine is a small sample though so don''t read too much into that. I have not raised enough to get what I would call a statistically meaningful number.

I did have one problem, not with toes or feet but with the joint in their leg. It only happened once, but when squatting down, a chick got its knee? ankle? (whatever that first bend is in their leg) stuck in the wire. I helped it out and it was not damaged. I'll continue to use the wire brooder since I consider that a freak accident, but it did happen and could have been bad. It is possible a chick could get its toes caught where the wire goes over a support, but it is also possible a chick could get its toe caught where two boards come together in another style of brooder. Its not the wire itself I would worry about but where it creates a tiny gap crossing a support.

Something to consider about raising them on wire. Coccidiosis can be a problem for chicks raised on wire, not while in the brooder but once you let them on the ground. That wire keeps the brooder real dry so it is highly unlikely you are going to have a cocci problem with them there. What normally happens with chicks not raised on wire, is that the chicks eat each others poop and that poop can be slightly damp. The life cycle off cocci protazoa is that it grows in a chicken's intestines and lays eggs. Some of the eggs or the protazoa itself is pooped out and the eggs develop in the damp poop. If the poop is too dry, the eggs don't develop enough. Another chick eats it so any cocci protazoa one chick has is soon shared by all. Chicks can develop an immunity to that specific strain of protazoa if they are exposed to it while real young. If they don't get exposed to it when they are real young, they will be exposed to it when they hit the ground. If they have not developed that immunity, it can hit them pretty hard and even kill them.

I get around that in my brooder by putting in a small piece of plywood, about a foot square with a lip around it, to collect some of their poop so they can eat it. I also take a scoop of dirt from my run to introduce any cocci protazoa in it to them when they are very young, like two or three days old, so they can develop the immunity they need.

 

[ghunt507]

Thanks Ridgerunner
Was not aware there was a link between Coccidiosis and the brooder.