Concrete floor?

[DewberryJam]

Hi! I know we’re supposed to keep our peachicks “off the ground” for their first few months. Our babies are getting big enough now (6-7weeks old) that we need to move them from the brooder they’ve been in to a larger temporary juvenile housing. To that end, we’re making use of a couple large shelving units, but we don’t know if we need to make a bottom shelf floor for them or if the concrete pad under a metal roofed carport would be safe for them. We do have chickens that often free range, including that concrete pad/carport, but if the concrete under the housing has been cleaned, will that be okay as the peachicks floor? If not, we can engineer something to keep them “off the ground” and also “off the concrete” for longer, but I wanted to ask here first.

Along the same lines, is 1/2” hardware mesh okay for upper level flooring at this point or do they still need a finer mesh for flooring? The birds don’t have those little tiny baby toes and legs anymore!

And I’m assuming I’ll need to start deworming them anyway, just because they’ll be outside instead of inside? I’ll probably be back with more questions about that later!

 

[KsKingBee]

The two biggest myths in keeping peafowl are 'lockdown' and 'keeping the chicks off the ground for months on end'.

Our chicks spend the first six weeks in an indoor brooder house with wire floor stack brooders, the GQF type. Then they go outside to a carport with wire floor, (1/2x1") for the next four to six weeks. After that they go to the ground and are treated with Toltrazuril and dewormed with Valbazen monthly until the middle of winter.

The concrete floor is fine but you should put down large flake pine shavings and start the cocci and worm treatments a couple of weeks after you put them on it.

 

[DewberryJam]

Oh fantastic! Yes, we will do that! Thank you for all your help!! I’m so nervous about upgrading them to outside, but it’s time! Skywalker and Charlie are doing great and so ready for more!

 

[Midnightman14]

The two biggest myths in keeping peafowl are 'lockdown' and 'keeping the chicks off the ground for months on end'.

Our chicks spend the first six weeks in an indoor brooder house with wire floor stack brooders, the GQF type. Then they go outside to a carport with wire floor, (1/2x1") for the next four to six weeks. After that they go to the ground and are treated with Toltrazuril and dewormed with Valbazen monthly until the middle of winter.

The concrete floor is fine but you should put down large flake pine shavings and start the cocci and worm treatments a couple of weeks after you put them on it.

It depends on what you mean by ground too. When I say ground I mean the black topsoil and clay mixture that is chock full of organics. Not a good medium to put chicks on which is why I never naturally hatch anything.

 

[DewberryJam]

This is the mostly finished juvie bird jail. We brought them out for a bit to introduce them to it before putting on finishing touches and moving them out here full time. It just needs to get them out of the house and through the time it takes to put together their more permanent pen. When the juvie jail is no longer needed, my sweetie will dismantle it and clean the shelves back up for using for storage. They don’t care for the wire mesh on the shelves, but they’ve only known towels, wood tables, and vinyl flooring. We have pine shavings to throw down on the concrete before they stay there. We need to get them a good roost in there, a dust bin, and a bigger/better hanging waterer and feeder now that they’re bigger themselves. They sure grow fast!

 

[Midnightman14]

This is the mostly finished juvie bird jail. We brought them out for a bit to introduce them to it before putting on finishing touches and moving them out here full time. It just needs to get them out of the house and through the time it takes to put together their more permanent pen. When the juvie jail is no longer needed, my sweetie will dismantle it and clean the shelves back up for using for storage. They don’t care for the wire mesh on the shelves, but they’ve only known towels, wood tables, and vinyl flooring. We have pine shavings to throw down on the concrete before they stay there. We need to get them a good roost in there, a dust bin, and a bigger/better hanging waterer and feeder now that they’re bigger themselves. They sure grow fast!

never use pine shavings. They eat them.