Inhouse chicks

[holahead]

Does anybody raise their baby chicks inside? Do they give off a bad smell? The reason I ask is because my nine year old son has been saving any little money he gets and he has enough to buy four baby chicks and all the supplies. When I was raising my baby chicks I keep them in my step-dads shop. It is a lot to go though everyday to have to go over and take care of just four chicks. So my son and I have been trying to talk my wife into letting us keep them in the laundry room. She is saying no because they will stink. But I told her we will keep the poo all cleaned up everyday so there will be no poo smell. My son has his little heart set on getting him some Rhode Island Reds and I would hate to disappoint him because he loves chickens so much. So we would be thankful for any info/help to sway my wife for him to get his little chicks. Thanks

 

[briteday]

I'm pretty sure a lot of us bood our chicks in the house or garage. Ihave done it for a few years. Our weather is often still cold in April, but by mid-May is warm enough to put chicks into the brooder in the coop with a bit of heat lamp at night. But I generally keep themin the house until 4-6 weeks old. Change the shavings as needed and keep the water from spilling all over and you shouldn't have much smell.

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

Oh, yes you can raise them in the house and they don't smell hardly at all! I dunno how many I've raised in the house!
Everyone I've raised in the house did just great! Go for it!

 

[Briney Dave]

we have six americana in the house they are coming up on two weeks and will be moved outside in the next couple days. I have big rubbermaid tub with about three inches of beding and paper towels on top of that. The towels are replaced at least twice a day

No smell, no problems. Neither my wife or I would tolerate either of those in the house and at first figured the chicks would be moved to the shop floor after a day or two but they have been great to be around and are trouble free

keep in mind that they grow very fast and will not tolerate the tub more than a couple weeks before they want and need more space to spread their wings sort of to speak LOL

 

[txmel]

Hi I keep the baby chicks in the house. actually in the dinning room. i keep them on pine shavings with paper towels over that. they don't smell, much. i change out the paper towel a couple of times a day though. i have screen over the top of the brooder to help with some of the dust that gets kicked around because even with the paper towels they still manage to get to the pine shavings to kick them around. once they are about 2--3 weeks and are starting to out grow the brooder in the dinning room they move to a larger one in the garage. hope this helps you. good luck!

 

[Ariel301]

I've got 35 chicks in my bathroom, and they do smell some. That's mostly because there's no ventilation since we have to keep the door shut to keep the cats out and the temperature up, and there are no windows either. Change the bedding once (twice if you can manage) daily and give everything a good cleaning when you do. I use plastic storage totes as brooders because I can rinse them out in the tub or with the garden hose really easily to get them completely clean. Four chicks shouldn't smell at all, I would think. Even my 35 are not intolerable, even if I skip a day of bedding changing. It just gives the bathroom that 'pet store' smell if you know what I mean.

 

[CrazyMomOf2]

I've got 48 3 week old chicks in my basement bathroom and you can barely smell anything. I can smell the pine from the shavings, but it's no worse than my son's guinea pig... actually the guinea pigs smell worse (and they're on scented bedding!). I will completely clean out their room once a week, depending on how poopy the shavings are. They'll be down there for a little while longer, since my DH hasn't even started building their coop yet!

 

[holahead]

Thanks everyone!

 

[HEChicken]

I wouldn't miss out on having them in the house! We have them in the middle of the living room and all of us (cat included) agree they're more entertaining than TV.

 

[JoAnn_WI_4-H_Mom]

I think dust is the bigger issue, but 4 should not be too bad.