Need ideas re brooder floor

[coolchickens]

I have been looking at all the brooders on the brooder thread and it appears everyone uses shavings. I'm doing my first brooder duties due to the mom (duck) not accepting her babies. I have 2 runner babies and one cochin chick (rejected also) in a box x 1 wk. I found a play pen so I could enlarge the brooder but what do I put on the bottom of it? I thought I saw a thread saying not to use shavings as they eat them and I know ducks will eat anything. I'm sure the chick will be okay but they are mixed in the brooder. Any ideas of what I could put in there? I have been using towels and what a MESS! I have to change them twice a day and they get soaked from the ducks somehow. I have a piece of linolium I can put on the bottom but don't know what else to cover that. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Sharon

 

[Chicken0Boy]

Well, to start off I heard it is a horrible to put ducks and chicks together, but it's whatever you want to do................I have heard of people using dog matts, pine shavings, and paper towels. If possible I would stick to using paper towels, because I was going to use pine shavings but I heard people using them and they cause alot of dust and were messy! When I get my chicks I am going to use paper towels, but with you having ducks and chicks I don't know what to do........Hope I gave a little help!

 

[Revelle]

Lots of stuff!

Rice Husks
Pine Pellets
Pine Shavings
Aspen Shavings
Said Puppy Pads
Paper Towels
Rubber Mats
Indoor/Outdoor Fabric
Fake Grass

There's most likely more stuff out there, but unsure of for now! This is stuff that I just heard about.

Only no-no I know of is newspaper, since it can contribute towards spraddled legs.

Anndd I don't think ducks and chicks are too bad together until the chicks get wet since they chill and get sick easy. Though I guess they can get wet super easily with ducklings around.

 

[Break an Egg]

When mine are about 1 week old, I will take out the paper towels and put sand at the bottom. I haven't tried sand, but my older chickens love the sandy parts of my yard, so I fgured why not. Plus it should be easy to clean with a kitty box scooper or some kind of screen contraption that I haven't made yet.

 

[Revelle]

Quote:
Sand! I knew I missed something known.

I tihnk I'm going to make a brooder help thread.

 

[coolchickens]

Thank you so much for the suggestions. I was thinking about newspaper but thankfully I saw your reply. I do have a case of puppy pads left over so I will try that. Forgot all about them until you mentioned it. I have never had to raise the babies myself, my hens usually take care of this. A hen surprised me, hiding in a cat litter bucket and hatched 3 babies leaving 3 egss behind. I had several suggestions re disposing of the leftover eggs, so put them in bucket & all in the trash can, then later felt bad and retrieved them (like 4 hrs later) then found another hen broody in the barn so put them under her and 5 days later this little chick hatched out but she left it abandoned so that's where the spare chick came from! I tried putting it under the other hen but those babies were 5 days old so that didn't work. Never screw with Mother Nature, I guess! The chick is now 4 days old, baby ducks 5 days old and all appear to be strong. Now I'm the new mama.... Sharon

 

[lleighmay]

I tried ducks and chicks together last year; everyone survived but I don't think it was a really good environment for the chicks since it's impossible to keep ducks from swizzling water all over the place and the chicks don't need the damp. Even though I changed litter (and I tried many different varieties) constantly it was hard to keep things dry. This year I'm planning to keep them separate. I saw a post on here a while back where someone made a square box out of 2x4's end nailed together and covered with hardware cloth (several inches wider than the waterer) and filled with some sort of really absorbent material (I think it was stall-dri) that they set the ducks' waterer on. That way when they spilled water everywhere it was all contained in the absorbent material and kept the brooder much drier. I'm planning to try this for my ducklings when I get them this year; I wonder if your solo chick would be ok with something like that since the dampness would be much more contained. He wouldn't be alone that way. I'm sorry I can't remember who did the original post about the waterer stand but I did think it was brilliant.

 

[coolchickens]

Hmmmm..... interesting. Maybe I can make a box like that for the playpen where I'll put the water and use Stall-dri to absorb. You gave me an idea, poss. elevating the floor with hardcloth and putting the Stall-dri all under it as even their poops of about 80% water and get everything very wet. Now I see why people say ducks are so messy.... but they are so cute and fun! I'm thinking I would have to cover the hardcloth with something for their feet, i.e., maybe some shade cloth that lets water go thru but easier on feet. Still thinking of ways so keep the ideas coming. Thanks so much! Baby chick is doing great. Looks like poss. a splash Cochin. I sure don't want her/him to get resp. problems from moisture. Sharon

 

[MrsWoods]

well my DH rigged a recliner box(our family owns a furniture store) that is huge and filled the bottom up pine needles....whatever works i guess