How much litter in brooder box?

[Mommysongbird]

I am getting my brooder ready and wanted to know how much little to put in at first and when should I turn on the light?

I am using pine shavings.

 

[sunny & the 5 egg layers]

I put 2-3 inches of shavings in my brooder. The tempature should be 95 degrees when they are less than a week. Then you decrease by 5 degrees every week. So on week 1 its 95 on week 2 its 90 and so on.

 

[Celtic Chick]

What sunny & the 5 egg layers said.

Turn on the light before you put them in so it is up to temperature in the brooder for them, and keep in on until they are old enough not to need it anymore. Usually once you get to about 70 degrees, or 6 weeks or so.
Pine shavings are excellent. Never use cedar shavings, as they are toxic to chicks.

 

[FMAFarms]

Ditto what everyone else said. You want the brooder at the right temperature before you put your chicks in. If you can, pick up a couple of thermoeters from your feed store or TSC -- there are thermometers made specifically for brooders, so you can keep one near the heat lamp and one at the opposite side of the brooder to be able to better regulate the temperature (and heat lamp height). Be sure to NOT put your waterer beneath the heat lamp, though. It'll heat up the plastic, and chicks don't necessarily like warm/hot water plus you never know what heated plastic releases into the water. Be sure to put newspaper beneath the shavings (it'll help with clean up) and to put paper towels on top of the shavings for the first week, to prevent splayed legs and to help with clean up, too.

 

[Nicole01]

I use about an inch to an inch and a half of shavings. I swear I have a whole layer of feed under the shavings, so I don't want it too deep. The girls spill their food out of their dish and kick it all over the brooder. We just found out that fleet farm sells pine shavings real cheap in the horse section. We got 5x5 cubic feet of pine shaving for 5 bucks. We were using hamster bedding prior, which is not even a quarter of the big pack I bought for the same price. I don't use newspaper under the shavings. The birds were shredding and eating the paper when it was in there. Cleaning it out isn't a big hassle. I clean the poo about a 100 times a day and clean the entire brooder every few days. It's pretty clean in there.