Is this safe for my chicks? Using a disinfectant to clean?

[twinkids*tripletchicks]

We have our chicks in a spare room. We bought a floor covering (roll-out linoleum from Home Depot) to go over the hardwood. I go in and clean up poop about 8-10 times each day (basically whenever I go in to check on them). Anyway, whenever I can't get one up cleanly with paper towels, I spray with Chlorox disinfectant. And then every other day, I wipe down the entire floor with the Chlorox. Is this bad for the chicks? Is there something I should do instead? Everything I read says that cleanliness is important, but maybe I am going overboard.

 

[Anianna]

How old are your chicks? Young chicks should not be on a slick surface like linolium or they could get splayed legs. I would put pine shavings down or even a layer or two of textured paper towels (like Bounty or Brawny). Pine shavings will absorb a lot of poos and pees and give them a good surface to walk on. You can just scoop out the litter once a week or once every few days, whatever makes you comfortable and put new litter down. There really is no need for so much disinfecting.

 

[twinkids*tripletchicks]

They will be 6 weeks on Thursday.

 

[Anianna]

Six weeks should be old enough that you don't have to worry about splayed legs, but if you put down pine shavings, you wouldn't have to clean constantly. Disinfectants can be irritating to the mucus membranes and might be hard on the chicks. If you use the larger shavings like are designed for use with horses, it isn't so dusty and the shavings absorb a lot of the mess, so don't need to be changed out as frequently as you would have to clean a bare floor.

I <3 my pine shavings and I have an immune deficiency. We also haven't had any illness amongst our flock. I change shavings out about once a week. Several BYCers use the deep litter method, which means instead of cleaning old litter out, they just pile fresh litter on top of old. This allows the chickens to naturally compost old litter. I'm not comfortable with doing it that way, myself, and I'm guessing you would rather change yours out. I just wanted to let you know that chickens are pretty mess-tolerant.

 

[stcroixusvi]

Quote:
Do you mind if I ask why you are uncomfortable with the deep litter method? We are in the decision stage - chicks are not yet 3 weeks and coop is a work in progress.

Thanks,

 

[spotstealer]

Are you in the process of building your coop? How many birds? They should be pretty close@ 6 wks to move outside? I also had mine inside (six chickies), but I had a 3X6 brooder. I moved them to their partially completed coop (now 99.9% done, fighting the good ol' WI weather) at 7 weeks old.

My coop is 4X6, and I use the shallow litter method. I set it up to where the whole side of the coop opens and I scrape the shavings right into a yard cart, then the compost pile. I use a long handled dust pan the reaches all the way to the far wall wihout crawling up inside. It works great!

 

[gritsar]

It is possible to be too clean with chickens (and human children!). They need to be exposed to germs to build an strong immunity system.
Do you have a coop ready for them? I can't imagine having 6 weeks old in the house.

 

[twinkids*tripletchicks]

We do have a coop ready for them but it's pretty cold here still. It was so cold today for our memorial picnic today, we were all in winter coats. I think we are forecasted to be in the 60s next week, so maybe we will be moving out of this cold, wet spring that has been holding on. It really isn't too bad to clean up after them on the bare floor. There are only 3 chicks and so there is usually only about 5-10 poops to clean up each time I go in. I was worried about my 5 year olds tracking poop all through the house on the bottom of their shoes. I would probably not keep it so clean but for that. Thanks for the advice, I think I will scale back on the disinfectant and just go back to wiping up with paper towels.

 

[Anianna]

Quote:
Do you mind if I ask why you are uncomfortable with the deep litter method? We are in the decision stage - chicks are not yet 3 weeks and coop is a work in progress.

Thanks,

Mostly because I have an immune deficiency and any mess piling up makes me uncomfortable, as if it just exposes me to more old, rotting stuff that could make me sick.

 

[stcroixusvi]

Quote:
Do you mind if I ask why you are uncomfortable with the deep litter method? We are in the decision stage - chicks are not yet 3 weeks and coop is a work in progress.

Thanks,

Mostly because I have an immune deficiency and any mess piling up makes me uncomfortable, as if it just exposes me to more old, rotting stuff that could make me sick.

Thanks for clarifying. I just wondered if there was a chicken health concern. Sorry to hear about your immune deficiency.