How often do you clean the brooder?

[ChaoticCritters]

Daily

I have a small plastic box with shavings, they go in there and then dump out the regular box, hose it out, dry it, dump in new shavings and back in everyone goes. One of my kid's holds/plays with the chicks while the other cleans. None of the chicks ever seems stressed and I've never lost a chick so I must be doing ok.

 

[gapeach717]

I clean it out every other week.mnow du,ping the shavings that are used into my garden.

 

[ButchGood]

Every Saturday is how I was doing it.

 

[cupman]

I usually tell myself "no more chickens" and throw the brooder in the burn pile after every batch. But then time goes on and I start wanting more chickens so I build another cheapo brooder and the process repeats itself.

 

[TonySorrento]

I clean mine out every week ... i put a divider to close of 2/3rds of the brooder, clean out old shavings, put in new ... place roosts, feeder and waterers and than chase them to the clean area and putting the divider back to clean the last 1/3rd

As far as stressing the chicks out ... they are animals .. they get stresses over many things ... including eachother ... don't sweat it ...

 

[clucknpeck]

About every 5 days. I put the chicks in a cardboard box for the 5 min it takes to clean it, lug the brooder upstairs and dumb all the shavings into a large bucket that I later dump in the garbage-I am not lifting that huge bin over my head to the garbage,hence the bucket. I haven't hosed it out or anything... I put a lot of shavings in, about 4 inches deep. The shavings underneath are still clean actually so I don't have to hose anything out. Plus,having that much shavings allows them to really dust bathe themselves in the shavings.

 

[clucknpeck]

Oh and the bucket I pre dump the shavings in is outside. Lots of dust goes flying.

 

[bucky52]

i try to clean mine at least weekly.i cleaned mine out on sunday.and by tuesday it needs it again. i have ten three week old chicks.they totally freak out when i pick them up.and scream to high heaven.they will eat dried meal worms out of my hands but do not like to be picked up.and i do not like to stress them out.they will soon be moved to their new coop.i had read that when chickens moult that it is painful to them when they are growing in new feathers.so thats why they do not like to be fooled with since my chicks are feathering out i was just wondering if it hurts them to be picked up.

 

[Michelelyl]

I have a really large brooder about 18 sq. ft. with at least 4 inches deep of pine shavings. I have 5 chicks that are now 4 weeks old. I clean the waterer three times a day and the feeder once a day. I totally dump the brooder and wipe all toys and walls once a week, using a 10% bleach water solution. It does not smell in our home office, even though they are very active little boogers.
Michele

 

[crchickens]

When they were smaller and in a smaller brooder, I did it every day, fully. Now, they are in a big, 4 X 5 brooder, and I do it every 4 days or so. I am moving them to the coop very soon, and it is not soon enough. They are getting big.