Hello stinky brooder.....

[MissMonty]

I clean our brooder regularly. Its in our laundry room in the house currently so I don't like the nasty chicken smell so I keep it very clean. Well Friday I cleaned the brooder, scrubbed it down completely, like DEEP clean.

Yesterday evening I noticed they had tipped over their water jug. It was only like 1/4 full at most at that point so not a massive deal, I found it at like 11p like that and I had a sick kiddo. Since it wasn't soaked or anything I decided I'd clean it first thing in the morning....famous last words.

Where I refilled the water they dumped the whole thing over this time (it was a bigger one) after they had already kicked food everywhere. Then that mush mixed with poo from the giant chicks at this point. I woke up and oh my goodness the smell coming from my laundry room was rough.

Note to self, don't put off cleaning up a mess and assume dumping the water was a fluke thing...all clean and I have happy chicks now but wow! Thankfully I fixed the water so it shouldn't dump again too....

 

[CluckerFamily]

That smell can be nasty!
Glad you fixed the waterer.

 

[Ridgerunner]

A dry brooder, a dry coop, or dry poop usually isn't a smell problem. But once it gets wet it won't be long. Dry is very important.

 

[MissMonty]

That smell can be nasty!
Glad you fixed the waterer.

A dry brooder, a dry coop, or dry poop usually isn't a smell problem. But once it gets wet it won't be long. Dry is very important.

For sure, it was rough! They started to roost on top of the water and in the shenanigans of a few of them fighting over it they knocked it over. I thought it was a fluke thing since it was mostly empty when it happened. When they did it again overnight I knew it was a bigger problem.

Sometimes when you're use to your chickens having clean bedding you're not use to the WOW smell that can come from them

 

[springvalley123]

Ugh! So did you prevent the problem from reoccuring? Maybe give them a bigger water dish with a rock in it so their weight won't tip the bowl over?

 

[RubelliteRose]

I had to laugh because last spring our chicks started knocking over their water at least once a day during their last 2 weeks in the brooder and I too tried waiting until morning to clean the mess. Big mistake! Please share how you fixed your waterer. We have chicks arriving in April and that is the one "lessons learned" that I haven't figured out yet

 

[rosemarythyme]

I no longer had this issue once I brooded outdoors... amazing what a ton of fresh air does to "fix" stinky brooder issues!

But yes my first batch of chicks seemed to be throwing the waterer across the brooder daily in their last week or so indoors. I was cleaning daily but the smell was terrible!

 

[MissMonty]

Ugh! So did you prevent the problem from reoccuring? Maybe give them a bigger water dish with a rock in it so their weight won't tip the bowl over?

I had to laugh because last spring our chicks started knocking over their water at least once a day during their last 2 weeks in the brooder and I too tried waiting until morning to clean the mess. Big mistake! Please share how you fixed your waterer. We have chicks arriving in April and that is the one "lessons learned" that I haven't figured out yet

First I moved to the bigger dish, before I had it sitting on top of a little riser (it was a buried tupperware) to keep the water dish 1/2" or so above the shavings. That really helped with keeping the water clean until now.

So I moved to the bigger dish so it was a lot heavier then I also removed the riser. Now I have shavings filling the water all the dang time but I'll go out and clean it out a couple times a day, way better than every day cleaning the whole stinky brooder. Not a perfect solution but it'll work for now.

The bigger chicks are moving out to the coop this weekend in a big dog kennel probably that will really help because then if they do dump the water I can just move them to another spot and shovel anything super wet out. (I use a wire dog cage with no tray when I put them in the coop like this). They'd only be like that a couple weeks then hopefully I can start letting them loose in the coop. Fingers crossed because these chicks are killing me.

I no longer had this issue once I brooded outdoors... amazing what a ton of fresh air does to "fix" stinky brooder issues!

But yes my first batch of chicks seemed to be throwing the waterer across the brooder daily in their last week or so indoors. I was cleaning daily but the smell was terrible!

Normally I do as well. With how cold it gets here the winter just wasn't the best idea. Normally in colder weather I put them in my insulated garage. I knew we had some questionable weather coming to where we could lose power and its crazy cold so since I had an ayam cemani chick I didn't want to risk it as the chicks will be way warmer in the house waiting for the power to come back on

 

[Ridgerunner]

At first I tried this type of waterer. They kept knocking it over so I put some screws in the wood to hold it in place and hung a wire support from the top.

Then I switched to this. Cut a hole in some plywood, put a couple of supports underneath, and insert the waterer. The platform sitting above shavings gives them a place to stand when drinking and raises it to help keep trash out. By inserting it like this they don't flip it by perching on the edge. When I use it in the brooder I fill it with rocks so the chicks can drink from the cracks but can't fall in and drown. They will poop in it so it has to be emptied daily. They need clean water plus daily emptying keeps the mosquito larva from developing.