I'm wondering if anyone has a solution to keeping the chicks from kicking pine shavings into their water and food. They are making a mess... Lol! Every time I turn around I'm having to digg the shavings out of their water. I'm thinking I have them in to small of a brooder or I'm just using to much bedding. I've heard about people using paper towels, would it work if I put paper towels down and top those with a smaller amount of pine shavings?
oh my gosh yes they are sooo bad to do that... what I did was I put a brick in the box with them and got the waterier up out of the shavings.. I was amazed how without a adult to teach them that the scratching was apparent so early in development ... this really helped mine and it made the little guys stretch to get the water. ( a bit of exercise) have fun )O( Pink
We switched to the chicken nipple waterers which has been a godsend for us. We only have 3 chicks but much less mess. We also used puppy wee pads in the bottom of our brooder at first since we had some left over...VERY easy to clean up and change the brooder.....Now if I could just figure out how to keep them from getting their food EVERYWHERE I have raised up the food but I figure you are always gonna have some mess with chickens. Best of luck and enjoy your new little ones
well you can get hanging waterers and feeders when they get a bit older, until then, I just elevate mine off the floor on blocks of thick wood, cinder blocks etc...birds are messy anyhow, be ready for waste...they will eat it off the floor, like they do when the free range, they LOVE to scratch and hunt for their food, as they get older, throw scratch down in the tall grasses and watch them go!
The large rabbit waterer works well also. The small rabbit waterer doesn't drop enough water for their preferences. You can tell when they get that one they are like, Awe come on Ma! If you switch to a nipple or rabbit waterer I would do it immediately. The ones I started on it were fine but I used the dish for a week with the second set and they are having a hard time getting the hang of the nipple. If you have several birds you will need more than one nipple so they all can get a drink. It did help to teach them by putting a bowl under it to catch excess and drink with my finger several times a day.
the waterers sound great, but isn't that what they use in the "plants" where our store bought eggs come from? I prefer mine to be able to dip their beaks in and really enjoy a good drink...each of us does it differently according to our own preference...mine truly are spoiled, huge coop, roosts, free range over 300+ acres if they choose, (they don't though) and yummy treats...do what works for you and you have happy healthy chicks!
Quote:Same here. I actually was entertaining the idea of the nipple waterers but when I was telling dh about it, he said he thought they might like dipping their beaks and such and not having to work so hard for water (not sure if they actually "work" harder for it but it isn't really natural). As for the free ranging, we have 10 acres here and I wish so badly we could let them run all over. But with a homicidal cat and a dog that will play (hard) with anything that moves, they just wouldn't be safe at any age. Plus we have farm ground all around us and they use chemicals in it and I'd hate for them to wander over there and get sick from it.
Oh and to answer the original question, we had some bricks leftover from a house project and we put the water up on those. But they still get stuff in it. I think we need to add another layer of bricks.
I also used a brick (patio block actually) to get the food and water up off the ground. Because they can still step up on it they still manage to poop in the water though. Only a few more days until they move outside! Can. Not. Wait.