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.
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.