I am tired of them being in the house.

[FMAFarms]

JustAChickenLittle&More :

I have had quite a few chicks at one time in the house during the last couple of hatches. We've had a very unusually heavy snow season, and cold. The smell is not bad at all. But I change the paper completely each morning and I change the paper and clean the tote once a week with dawn/warm water. Oh, and I rinsed out the water containers daily with hot water and also made sure the feed containers were clean of any poopies on the sides.

Phew! Glad to see I'm not the only one who cleans and changes stuff on a daily basis!

CannonChicks, perhaps you're confusing pine shavings with cedar? Cedar can be toxic for chickens and should never be used. As for the wire mesh, that is one option for the first week or so, to keep the chicks from ingesting their bedding/litter and to help strengthen their legs by giving them a surface to grip. Some people use paper towels instead. But pine shavings are cheap and easy to find.​

 

[ChicksterJo]

Quote:
Wow. That's a new one to me.

Every single batch o' chicks I've raised has been on pine shavings in the brooder(s). I use the "deep litter" method even in the brooder and don't clean the things out completely for 8 weeks. I just remove the wet stuff by the waterer and keep adding more shavings. If there is a particularly wet poop, I toss a handful of shavings on it. Of course, this is if I happen to be by the brooder when that happens... And every couple of days I just add a few more hands full of shavings as a matter of course.

It means I have to keep putting something taller under the waterer and feeder as the litter gets higher, but that's not so tough.

The pine shavings are absorbent and will desiccate the moisture from the wet poops. The chicks will keep the pine shavings stirred up enough by their actions. When the chicks go outside full time, I dump the whole bin of used shavings into the compost bin.

There is very little odor. Wet litter makes it smell.

The dust comes not so much from the pine shavings as it does from the chicks themselves, as their feathers shed their sheaths and bits of feathers themselves are shed.

Noise? It should be happy little chicky sounds unless there's a problem.

The person I bought my chicks from put them in a box filled with pine shavings for the ride home. The chicks were pecking at the shavings so I decided to just put down a wire mesh. I also have to wash the mesh every morning and change the papers too..we're running out of junk mail.

 

[CannonChicks]

Quote:
Wow. That's a new one to me.

Every single batch o' chicks I've raised has been on pine shavings in the brooder(s). I use the "deep litter" method even in the brooder and don't clean the things out completely for 8 weeks. I just remove the wet stuff by the waterer and keep adding more shavings. If there is a particularly wet poop, I toss a handful of shavings on it. Of course, this is if I happen to be by the brooder when that happens... And every couple of days I just add a few more hands full of shavings as a matter of course.

It means I have to keep putting something taller under the waterer and feeder as the litter gets higher, but that's not so tough.

The pine shavings are absorbent and will desiccate the moisture from the wet poops. The chicks will keep the pine shavings stirred up enough by their actions. When the chicks go outside full time, I dump the whole bin of used shavings into the compost bin.

There is very little odor. Wet litter makes it smell.

The dust comes not so much from the pine shavings as it does from the chicks themselves, as their feathers shed their sheaths and bits of feathers themselves are shed.

Noise? It should be happy little chicky sounds unless there's a problem.

Cool, it was just something some other BYC members had posted. Was wondering, if it was fact.

 

[feather and mountain man]

I usually don't raise them in the house any more. I don't usually buy until April but I wanted to give my mom a mothers day present of EE's and I got box fillers with the 12 I ordered. Plus I don't usually raise this many at one time. I prefer to get between 5 and 10 chicks and start raising in April when I can keep them in the outside brooder. This weather is killing me and with 30 fast growing chicks I am having trouble keeping the smell down I change the litter every day. I have been thinking this was not a good idea. I have had chicks in the house before but never this many at one time. Uhg.

 

[JustAChickenLittle&More]

I have never had trouble with Pine Shavings, but I did hear not to use Cedar at all.

 

[PoultryPeeps]

I have been hatching steadily since New Years (Yay!) and I hate the dust/dander. So I got a couple air filters and put the smaller one in the bedroom for the brand new babies and a larger one in the garage where I have 2 different pens of different age chicks. It has kept down the dust amazingly! Much much better than without!

 

[3RaGaNo]

I feel the same way!!!......and I would say the chicks do and my labs do too

Spring needs to be on the way sooner than later. They are in the biggest brooder that I have, the coop is next, but with 2 outside walls and only 2 inside walls to the barn, it may be too cold yet (and we just got more snow today, which doesn't help either). We just never expected so many to hatch.

I am constantly cleaning and the rec room has never had the odor it does now.

I keep reminding myself that this too shall pass and I will love it this summer when they start laying. YEAH!!

 

[ChicksterJo]

Spring needs to come because as the chicks are getting older, they're getting rowdier.

 

[feather and mountain man]

Quote:
Love the pic!

 

[Elphaba2140]

Agreed but no room in garage and too cold outside. Last night a chick got out of the brooder box. Ran around and around the box (evidence left) and then apparently just jumped back in. All accounted for when I woke up. I had to laugh. Cleaned up the messes. Nobody said a word when I asked "Who did it?" They all just looked at me. Spring please hurry!