Is my brooder big enough and.....

[sundcarrie]

Well I have read so many different things I am starting to get confused. I got my first 6 chicks yesterday and put them in a brand spanking new 35 gallon rubbermaid tub. They have a chicken feeder and chicken water dish and the recommended bedding. Is my tub big enough for them they seem plenty happy? We moved them up to a spare room from the basement because it was too cold at night even with their heat lamp. Well at least we felt like it was too cold and they seemed happier after we moved them up there.

I was also wondering if it would be overkill to change the bedding every other day?

Is it good to handle the chicks or not? I have read books and articles and heard some people say don't touch the babies too much and others say it is great to handle them a lot.

I have them on the starter feed from the store do I need to get them grit right away?

Anything I need to do to make sure they are healthy that is not in the chicken books?

Why are there so many differing opinions on what the right thing to do is?

I tend to get a little nervous about this kind of stuff I want healthy, happy chickens so I want to do the right thing.

 

[cackydoodledoo]

Everyone has different opinions on the right way to do things. A lot is trial and error. Noone on here would give you bad advice or advise to do anything that would harm your animals. You just have to decide which way you think is best. I am trying to envision the tub you are talking about and if it is what I am thinking it should be plenty big enough for 6 chicks. You mainly want to have enough room that they have a little room to play and plenty of room to get to the other side to cool off if need be. When you first bring the chicks home or get them shipped I would recommend letting them settle for about 24 hours. It is stressful on them to be shipped around. After that you can handle them. A lot of people think if you handle them from the beginning they will be more friendly when they get older. This is true sometimes and sometimes not. I can't answer your question about grit but others will come around and help out to!!!! Good luck with your chickies!!!

Change the bedding when you feel it needs to be. I change my about every 4-5 days and I have 12 running around right now. Go with your gut!!!

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Well I have read so many different things I am starting to get confused. I got my first 6 chicks yesterday and put them in a brand spanking new 35 gallon rubbermaid tub. They have a chicken feeder and chicken water dish and the recommended bedding. Is my tub big enough for them they seem plenty happy? We moved them up to a spare room from the basement because it was too cold at night even with their heat lamp. Well at least we felt like it was too cold and they seemed happier after we moved them up there.

Large fowl chicks need about half a square foot per bird for about the first two weeks. After that they'll need about a square foot. For six chicks you'll be OK for a while, but they'll begin to outgrow it.

I was also wondering if it would be overkill to change the bedding every other day?

For the first week or so it's probably not necessary to change it that often. After the first week given that it's in the house you may want to. Chick dust goes everywhere.

Is it good to handle the chicks or not? I have read books and articles and heard some people say don't touch the babies too much and others say it is great to handle them a lot.

I personally do not handle my chicks very often. But some folks want theirs to be lap pets. If you do then you'll want to handle them a lot, but I'd wait until they've been in the brooder for at least three days to give them a chance to stabilize to their new environment.

I have them on the starter feed from the store do I need to get them grit right away?

Grit is not necessary if you're only feeding them chick starter. It's already finely ground. Only when you begin feeding them stuff that you yourself would need to chew with your teeth if you were eating will they need grit. In my brooder I used rolled oats for chick scratch. No need for grit with that.

Anything I need to do to make sure they are healthy that is not in the chicken books?

Keep the bedding dry! Wet bedding is an invitation to coccidiosis. Keep the water clean, fresh, and plentiful. You may want to set the waterer on top of a piece of wood or something so they can't scratch it full of bedding. Just make sure they can still get to it.

 

[Eggcessive]

We just got our first chicks 2 days ago. I'm like you in reading everything I can to educate myself. We have been handling our 26 chicks twice a day to get them accustomed to us. Luckily, we have found several with pasting up, sometimes the same ones. I have been glad my friends can't see me wiping chick hinies, but I'm getting paranoid about them now. We bought chick grit, but the label says start it when they are 2 weeks old. Ours were on paper towel for a day, but they kept getting it into my waterer and it would be drained dry from wicking all the water out. Now they're on pine shavings. Good luck with your babies.

 

[suzeqf]

i have 30 chickies that range in age from almost 2 weeks old to 6 weeks old and have learned what they like by watching them i knew what they needed. they are all on non medicated chick starter and i give them grit everyday and have from day one and make sure they have plenty of clean water and i clean the poo out of their brooder daily and change the litter completly about every 2-3 days depending on how nasty it is. i use a clear heat lamp bulb on my little ones and nothing on my older ones. my older ones are in a 1/2 pallet cardboard box with a smaller box attached to it that i have their feed and water in and they have 2 roost and my little ones are in 2 cardboard boxes zip tied together with a roost and i started out putting them straight on shavings . i have all my feeder and water evalvated and that helps with the shavings in the water. it's mainly trial and error i had to play around a bit with the temp before i figured out where to put it so they were comfortable

 

[sundcarrie]

Thanks everyone!

 

[mommyofthreewithchicks]

I brood mine in a bigger tub but I also at times have more chicks. I change bedding at needed, first couple days I start them on paper towels and it gets changed more often than when I put them on shavings. I don't give mine grit for a month or so, if you are using the crumbles they don't need it. We handle our babies quite a bit ( not so much that they become lap chickens but enough that they are comfortable with the kids and I). Handling can be a time to really learn from them it also helps me check them out for stress or poopie butt.

Water and food are every time I go past their brooder, which is why it is in the basement, almost every 2-3 hours/ day. When they get a bit bigger, or I cannot stand the smell any longer they go out to a small room in the barn to grow out. They still get their heat lamp out there until they no longer need it.

 

[mama24]

I have over 20 chicks right now. I was going to have them out in the chicken shed in a kiddie pool with screen wrapped around it, but last weekend it suddenly got really cold overnight when a storm blew through. SO I brought them in the house and put them in the bathtub. We have 3 bathrooms, so we won't miss one for a few weeks.

I'll probably move them back out to the kiddie pool in the next week sometime. I'm also giving several away (this was planned before I got them, picked up extras for friends.) I think spring is definitely here finally (April 15 is planting day down here!)

 

[mama24]

I've just been spreading fresh bedding on top every day or 2, btw. I work fulltime and have 4 young kids, so I don't have the time to spend cleaning it out every day. I'm going to change the bedding today, though. I might just move them outside while I'm at it, but I need to check the weather forecast first.

 

[Ridgerunner]

You will get confused because so many different things work and we all have different circumstances. There is usually no one right answer for all of us. For example, I've kept 28 chicks in a 3' x 5' brooder until they were about 4-1/2 weeks old. That is about 1/2 square foot (77 square inches to be more exact) per chick. I felt I could have left them in there for another week or so if I wanted to. But say each chick occupied 7 square inches. That left 70 square inches per chick of unoccupied space for them to explore or 28 x 70 = 1960 square inches of unoccupied space. If I only had 4 chicks with 77 square inches each, they would have only had 280 square inches available to explore. This is possibly confusing, but maybe it is an example of why no one answer is right for all of us.

If all they eat is starter, not they do not need grit. I give mine some grit about day 3 for several different reasons. Part of it is that I think it helps get their system set up the way it is supposed to be. I think it helps prevent pasty butt, but I don't know that to be a fact. I do want them prepared in case they eat something other than starter, such as bedding or maybe a bug wanders into their area. Then I remember the time my wife stunned a wasp and put it in with a bunch of two week old chicks. They had a lot of fun playing keep away until they finally ate it. So, if all they eat is starter, no you do not have to. Many people don't. But I don't see that it hurts anything and it might help.

If you provide them with food, water, draft protection, one area that has the right temperature, and keep the brooder fairly dry, they whould be fine. What I like to do is keep one area the right temperature but leave the rest of the brooder cooler, maybe the far corner 20 to 30 degrees cooler. That way they can find their own comfort zone. If I tried to keep an entire brooder the perfect temperature I would worry a lot because I would have almost no room for error. With a larger brooder with a variety of temperatures, I don't have to worry because they will take care of themselves.