Dirt in chick keeper instead of wood shavings?

[3KillerBs]

I brood outdoors in a brooder that doesn't have a floor, but I don't put the chicks right onto the potentially cold and damp ground.

What I did was "tile" the ground with flakes off a straw bale and then top it with shavings.

Then I put a layer of paper towels on it for the first few days until they were surely eating their food rather than their bedding:

I used sand from my yard as their first grit and followed @Ridgerunner's advice in re: putting in clumps of dirt to gradually introduce them to their environment.

As they grew and got stronger they dug down to the ground through the shavings and the straw.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I brood outdoors right on the run floor, though for the first week or two I do throw a layer of wood shavings on top of the ground. Brooding outdoors is really the simplest way to brood chicks short of a broody mama.