Dust, Chips and Poop OH MY!

[pattee]

Wow...

I haven't seen this on the list and I might have missed it being my chicks are 4 and a half weeks. And it's a post gone by. But what do you all do about the dust chick's (chickens) make in your home??? I don't mind the chips and the poop... but all the dust makes me feel a bit overwhelmed...

Is it that maybe I don't change my brooder enough? I try and clean it ever other or every 2 days.

Anyone?

 

[Dilly]

Time to move outdoors if possible, with heat lamps if needed. Mine are so much happier now. And so am I.

 

[Half-a-dozen]

yes, yes time to boot them out....

 

[happyhen]

Someone feel free to jump in here, but I always thought that a lot of the "dust" comes from their feathers as well as the litter.

Still being in the house, I try to LIGHTLY spray the litter with a fine mist of water without wetting everything. At nearly 5 wks, chicks are healthy and happy and the dust is "reasonable".

 

[pattee]

Really boot them out?
They'll be 5 weeks on Tuesday~ Is that really time to boot them to their coop? maybe have the brooder top open so they can get out?
Also I thought of having 2 red lamps incase one is picked on and needs heat.

I love having inside.... but It's just overwhelming!

 

[Dilly]

You will love it more after that first night when you go visit them in their coop. It all depends on if you can have a light in the coop, Meaning are you wired for it?

Also how well your coop is preditor prrof, How draft resistant it is etc.

I would do it if you have your coop secure and good to go.

I love seeing them fly and play, scratch and just be happy chicks. Plus my third bath is no longer a brooder room. Love being clean again.

 

[pattee]

Yep Predator proof for sure.
Draft proof I believe also.
I have 2 250 red watt light bulbs that I can put out there... it's just they won't be 5 weeks until Tuesday!!!

And so many people are keeping them until they are 5, 6, 10 weeks old!
Ok maybe this week-end they will go and spread my I'm their wings!

 

[brookwoodpat]

Mine are out all day, but I am still bringing them in at night. I think though, that this weekend I will try leaving them out all night, though i am sure I will get no sleep -- that's the real issue. I'm sure they'd manage it, but if I have to work and I know I would be running out there all night or worrying about them, I have (so far) just felt it was easier to bring them inside for the night. I still think they are too young and I know, in the house, they're safe. They currently sleep at night in a storage tote in my dining room, but the oldest ones are getting on six weeks, and looking like big chickens now, all feathered. The younger ones are 4-5 weeks. They are getting a bit whiffy now though-- even though they are 'clean' and in totes with fresh new shavings. When they were just out of the egg, they had very little smell, but the older they get, the whiffier they get

Maybe it's their foraging diet, because they do free range 4-5 hours a day now. So it is time to move them out, if I can just gird myself to do it.

 

[zippychickens]

I kept my first batch inside for 1 week and then moved them to the garage. My second batch never stayed int eh house. Went straight to the garage. I moved them to the coop at 4weeks and they loved it.

 

[chicknhawaii]

My Cornish X, Chick-Chick got so HUGE she outgrew the brooder real quick. She went outside when she was 4-weeks-old. For us, the "dust" was from her pin feathers.

As for the babies now, I don't know when they're going outside but I gotta start putting something together.