Cleaning bedding

[chickNlvrTN]

Any ideas on the best methods to cleaning out bedding on a daily basis? We have 4 chicks and 2 ducklings. Both are about 1 week old? We got them from TSC yesterday
They are in a 3x4 brooder boxes that my hubby made. I'm using wood shavings as the bedding. This morning I took a spoon and raked it out. There has to be some better ideas out there!

Thanks!

 

[Chicky Tocks]

Have you tried a slotted kitty litter spoon? If the slots aren't wide enough, you could break out one or two to make for a larger slot.

 

[espressola]

I use a cat litter thingie... I take out all the peeps and put them into a clear storage tub with the lid on diagonally so they get plenty of fresh air. I take out any big clumps (not very common) and stir in the poops into the Sweet/PDZ shavings. Then I sprinkle a little new shavings onto the top every third day. When I am doing this I am soaking the waterers and anything else that needs cleaning in hot, soapy water. I replace the cleaned and filled waterers etc. and then replace the chicks.
Patty N. ;-)

 

[amarook]

I just dumped everything out once a week when they were in the little brooder. Now that they are out in the big brooder I'm going to do a deep litter thing. Pick off the surface stuff, and rake it all up... (cause I dumped waaay too much bedding in there when I first put them in. )
Dur!

 

[chickNlvrTN]

Thanks! I got a litter scoop tonight. Can't wait to use it to scoop poop tomorrow morning! Is that wrong?, LOL

 

[dreamcatcher]

Every other day I take all of the wood and newspaper out and put new in, I use a dust pan to scoop it up and discard.

 

[andisgarden]

I was adding the pine bedding to the brooder every day and then it was a mess to try to clean up so I started using the blue pads you get from a medical supply. I use the really thin ones that are not too padded then I lightly sprinkle pine on the top and I sprinkle pine 1 or 2 times a day. The next day I roll up the blue pads and put new ones in and start the process over again. It has really helped with the smell and it keeps their little feet clean.

This is my first time to do this and I have nothing else to compare it to but, it was really a pain the first 3 weeks doing it the scrape and add method.

This is my 2 cents on the issue. Thanks

 

[briteday]

I also like the little blue medical pads. And I get free paper shreds from work, from the secretary's paper shredder. I just sprinkle it lightly each evening as I'm cleaning / filling the food and water. During the first few weeks it seems they can go about a week before I empty the whole brooder out and start with fresh. By 3-4 weeks of age it lasts 3-4 days.

 

[txchickie]

I have a metal dog crate as a brooder right now, and since they fling 95% of the shavings out the sides every day I just add more right back in daily. ONce every 3 days or so I'll take the chicks and everything out for a good scrubbing and new fresh shavings.

I tried cardboard around the sides and it annoyed me LOL.

 

[cockadoodle]

When I was using my old aquarium for my brooder, I used a heavy duty dust pan, just scooped out everything into a plastic bag and tossed it.

Now I'm in a bigger brooder (a dog kennel used for crate training) and I am using a shop vac to suck out all the compressed wood pellets I'm using for bedding, pine wasn't as great for me for a few reasons... anyways..
I built a temporary pen out of chicken wire I can just set up in another room, move them into it and vac out their brooder and all the feathers around it, is working great

gives me a chance to handle and check out all the chicks for any problems. I dump the contents of the shop vac into the compost pile...done deal. Sometimes I let them 'free range' in the basement while I clean up, but my RIR pooped on my pool table yesterday so that's proably coming to an end.

~Mark