Exposing chicks to outside germs??

[SueT]

I always give chicks clumps of grass/dirt.
I put sand in the coop where my hen was brooding chicks this summer. I used sandbox sand. It actually has worked out extremely well! They don’t seem to eat it, but if they did, it‘s a lot better than shavings. It dries out the poop so nicely. I liked it so much I left it in, and they are now 5 months old and I still love that sand substrate in their coop….

 

[Cheesecurds]

Now and now. Only risk of grit early is gorging, but there's easy ways to avoid that (only offer a minimal amount in a dish, or sprinkle a tiny pinch on their feed once every few days)

I approach this like a mother hen, who'd have her chicks out and about and putting things in their mouths from 2-3 days old. I brood directly on the run floor so they're exposed to outside temps and pathogens immediately, and I provide grit immediately because I know for a fact that they're eating bits of grass, wood, dirt.

Thank you! Sadly I couldn’t do that with my chicks due to the weather but my plan is to bring in sod & start feeding grit. Thank you all!