Illinois...

[Molpet]

I use horse pine pellets in the brooder. A couple inches Covered with paper towels the first week or so. They break down when they get wet. I stir the wet spots and add as needed.
What does your brooder look like? I have an old horse water trough with an old door screen over it...so I have less problems with bedding escape

 

[SnootyHen]

And Ginger makes 4 little chicks driving my dogs crazy! Only one left to figure it out and she's been trying today too. One dog already lost chicken privileges because she can't contain herself when they get flappy, but this one here is the every-vigilant chicken nanny.

 

[Faraday40]

I posted this question in the chicks forum but no responses so I thought I'd see what you guys think. Would it be weird to change my brooder bedding to sand and/or PDZ which is what I have in my coop and run? The pine shavings smell so bad when wet and these little hooligans keep dumping their waterer. The box is in my house and I know sand in homes is usually a bad call but the shavings get everywhere too so I am going to be vacumming a lot no matter which one I use. I just don't know if it would be bad for any other reason. I'm sure it's not as soft for them to sleep on sand since they aren't roosting yet but sleeping on wet poopy pine shavings is probably not a delight either. What do you guys think?

Have you tried chicken nipples for the water? You can make your own water bottle using a drill, anything from recycle bin, and a piece of wire for hanging (coat hanger wire ). They are quick & easy to make, keep the brooder dry, and keeps the water clean. I never had problems with a chick learning. Once one chick tries and figures it out, the others all join in.

I just use the large flake hardwood shavings. Yes it can get dusty when they roll around to dust bath. @homeschoolin momma uses a sift-able type of bedding.

I also use a "mama heating pad" when I do not have a broody hen. I have kept chicks in the garage (to eliminate chick dust in house). The chicks go in & out of the warm spot as needed - just like a hen. It seems the chicks feather out a little faster too.

Of course as I write this, I have a few chicks that just hatched over the weekend in my basement. I'll probably move them to the garage when they're about a week old - if the temps are above freezing most of day. When they're about 3-5 weeks old, I move them with their mama heating pad into a cage within the coop to get the flock used to seeing them.

 

[SnootyHen]

Have you tried chicken nipples for the water? You can make your own water bottle using a drill, anything from recycle bin, and a piece of wire for hanging (coat hanger wire ). They are quick & easy to make, keep the brooder dry, and keeps the water clean. I never had problems with a chick learning. Once one chick tries and figures it out, the others all join in.

I just use the large flake hardwood shavings. Yes it can get dusty when they roll around to dust bath. @homeschoolin momma uses a sift-able type of bedding.

I also use a "mama heating pad" when I do not have a broody hen. I have kept chicks in the garage (to eliminate chick dust in house). The chicks go in & out of the warm spot as needed - just like a hen. It seems the chicks feather out a little faster too.

Of course as I write this, I have a few chicks that just hatched over the weekend in my basement. I'll probably move them to the garage when they're about a week old - if the temps are above freezing most of day. When they're about 3-5 weeks old, I move them with their mama heating pad into a cage within the coop to get the flock used to seeing them.

I think siftable is what I am looking for because their poop is just small enough to not make cleaning it up individually easy but smelly enough to require it. LOL!!! I have plenty of sand and PDZ for the big girls so if I can just use that for the littles too, it would be ideal. They're only in this box for another month hopefully so I hate to go crazy getting much more but the wet pine shavings are doing me in. I just don't remember it smelling this bad withthe last group!

 

[cavemanrich]

SnootyHen

I would go with the PDZ without the sand and see what happens.

 

[WhyDoILikeChickens]

Then a visitor

 

[SnootyHen]

@WhyDoILikeChickens those are awesome!!! (but the visitor makes it!)

 

[WhyDoILikeChickens]

 

[WhyDoILikeChickens]

 

[Justso]

And Ginger makes 4 little chicks driving my dogs crazy! Only one left to figure it out and she's been trying today too. One dog already lost chicken privileges because she can't contain herself when they get flappy, but this one here is the every-vigilant chicken nanny.

View attachment 2390764View attachment 2390765View attachment 2390766

These guys look like they're ready to go outside!