Indoor Coop?

[patandchickens]

Raising baby chicks is totally different than cage-birds.

First and most of all, because cage-birds go through,what, one set of feathers per year -- chicks go through like half a dozen full molts in three months, much of it involving not just feather dander itself but all that chick 'fluff'.

And second, chicks scratch continually (unless kept on wire, as one poster above did suggest), and therefore spread that dust, plus whatever dust is in the bedding-and-dried-poo, far and wide thru the air.

So the one thing does not really have a lot to do with the other.

Just saying,

Pat

 

[Drk_Wlf]

Quote:
I completely understand the differences, I am going on 3 years owning chickens and I have had small cage birds before; there is no comparing them.

I was just saying I don't know how my mother in law deals with all of her birds "talking" and the dogs barking without going completely bonkers.

 

[ADozenGirlz]

Quote:
True story. I raised chicks in our unfinished basement last year. NEVER AGAIN! They were a dusty mess and it got EVERYWHERE!!!!!!

 

[Drk_Wlf]

Quote:
True story. I raised chicks in our unfinished basement last year. NEVER AGAIN! They were a dusty mess and it got EVERYWHERE!!!!!!

How old where they when you moved them out, and how many did you have? I have raised up to 6 chicks and 6 ducklings to about 2 - 3 months with little to no problem. Of course there is no comparing that to 20 chicks (which as of yesterday) looks to be how many I am going to end up with.

 

[ADozenGirlz]

Quote:
True story. I raised chicks in our unfinished basement last year. NEVER AGAIN! They were a dusty mess and it got EVERYWHERE!!!!!!

How old where they when you moved them out, and how many did you have? I have raised up to 6 chicks and 6 ducklings to about 2 - 3 months with little to no problem. Of course there is no comparing that to 20 chicks (which as of yesterday) looks to be how many I am going to end up with.

I had three bantam, Cochin Frizzles and two BR/EE crosses in the basement who were responsible for the ghastly mess down there. They were there for about 3 months.

 

[Drk_Wlf]

Soooo I have 22 chicks in my basement.... 2 of them are 2 months and the other 20 are a little over a month. As everyone pointed out there is a bunch of dust, but its not unmanagable. It is not the massive nasty mess that everyone seem to be telling me it would be. The air is fine, the only time it gets a little dusty is when I am cleaning them and stirring stuff up. The smell is minimal and so far all the chicks are doing great, BUT I CAN'T WAIT TO GET THEM OUTSIDE! Oh well another month or two and I will start aclimenting them to the cold outside, so they can go with the other chickens. Next time I hatch chicks I will have something better set up OUTSIDE, but this has worked ok so far and I really had no other choice we didn't have anyplace outside to put them.

I am still trying to convince the hubby to expand the coop, he is under the impression that its big enough and I KNOW its not UGH men

 

[FoodKillah]

Quote:
I believe him. The coop is big enough. It cannot be smaller than the chicken farms cages that they pack 100s of chickens in a small area. From what i have read, you dont keep the chickens as pets at all, so just get them all in the coop and as soon as you start butchering the old birds, there will be more space for the others. No big deal.

Edit: Congratulation for hatching them!

 

[purr]

havn't read all the posts yet but I will, in the mean time just wanted to say its not just the dust , Its the smell! We had a broody with 2 chicks a couple of winters ago and ended up putting them in the shed because of the smell. It just wafted up.Cleaned it twice a day but it still smelled. 30 chickens is going to stink a lot! And don't rely on you guys to notice it after a while but don't invite company over till spring and once that smell gets into the fabric of your furniture have fun getting it out.