CalBickieMomma
Crowing
Mine get to live in the laundry sink until they are too big for that 
. Last time I had Littles, a friend let me borrow her big plastic livestock trough until they were old enough to go outside (those work great, if you want to make the investment, though I think most of them run between $60 and $100). This year, I went to Walmart and bought one of those big storage bins and had them in there for a while (and now it's the storage bin to hold their heat lamp, feeder/water dispenser, towels and mini blankets I made for them by cutting up scrap fleece and the like. That way, when I'm ready to raise the babies myself again, everything will be in one place ). I keep the bin in the kitchen on the floor, since the dogs live in the garage and the car is always coming in and out. The laundry room would be a good place, too, but it all depends on how ''clean'' you want to keep your home (we have inside birds and live near sand dunes, so dirt is a constant factor ).
I'm also that chicken momma who gets paranoid about all the terrible things that could happen to them outside - even though their coop and run is almost as secure as Fort Knox - so when they were big enough to go out during the day, I'd transport them in and out morning and night with a pet carrier.
I think it all depends on how many you plan on getting and how long you plan to keep them inside. If you want to keep them inside longer just to be on the safe side, bigger is always better so they have plenty of room to grow.
. Last time I had Littles, a friend let me borrow her big plastic livestock trough until they were old enough to go outside (those work great, if you want to make the investment, though I think most of them run between $60 and $100). This year, I went to Walmart and bought one of those big storage bins and had them in there for a while (and now it's the storage bin to hold their heat lamp, feeder/water dispenser, towels and mini blankets I made for them by cutting up scrap fleece and the like. That way, when I'm ready to raise the babies myself again, everything will be in one place ). I keep the bin in the kitchen on the floor, since the dogs live in the garage and the car is always coming in and out. The laundry room would be a good place, too, but it all depends on how ''clean'' you want to keep your home (we have inside birds and live near sand dunes, so dirt is a constant factor ).I'm also that chicken momma who gets paranoid about all the terrible things that could happen to them outside - even though their coop and run is almost as secure as Fort Knox - so when they were big enough to go out during the day, I'd transport them in and out morning and night with a pet carrier.
I think it all depends on how many you plan on getting and how long you plan to keep them inside. If you want to keep them inside longer just to be on the safe side, bigger is always better so they have plenty of room to grow.
My mom did - 25 layer chicks every two years, and I put out my 13 Speckled Sussex (who were growing like crazy - you could practically watch them get bigger by the hour!) and 6 banties (who were so tiny but fully fledged) in their coops not long ago. My kitchen is huge, 19' x 30', so it was easy to find spots for the brooder tubs away from food preparation/eating sites, then large cardboard boxes I had thankfully saved when I recently bought some furniture. Hardware cloth tops to keep the cats out; only one was interested, but I wasn't taking any chances. Dust wasn't too bad; I used low-dust pine shavings which may have helped. The smell wasn't bad either, as we keep windows open a lot and I kept up with changing out the shavings. We LOVED having them close by, especially my 7 yo granddaughter who lives with me. They are very tame now because of all the attention they got.
And good to know about the coop. Maybe we'll start on that this week and order the chicks next week if we've made good progress.
Awesome brooder compared to my 4'x2' box that I slapped together in our garage. I would love this for our quail especially.
