New to chicks will this work as a starter

[Mike Fronczak]

We are new to chicken, planning on getting maybe a dozen or so this spring. I understand you need a starter cage,( brooder ?). We have an rubbermaid water trough from our cattle that leaks (has a crack at the bottom), so we no longer use it for them. Will this work as a starter area, with a heat lamp on top at one end, shavings on the bottom, planning on keeping it in our attached garage where it stays realitivly warm. TSC said chicks come in starting in March. Thinking half bantams half a larger breed we have cows from my understanding the chickens will help with the flys, we also have cats so I need to let them get large enough the cats dint mess with them

 

[chicmom]

Oh yes, that'll make a nice brooder. I use a 110 gallon black stock tank for my brooder. Your water trough is probably pretty large, so it'll work just fine. Now if it's really huge, you might need a brooder lamp at each end. That's what I do with mine at first when the chicks are really little. They need it to be really warm. If they get chilly, they get pasty butt. (That's when their little tush gets dried poo stuck on it so badly, that if you don't get it off, the poo wil clog them up and they can die from that.)

For your chick waterer, make sure that it's elevated a tiny bit. Chicks will kick up the shavings and then fill the water tray up and then it's a total mess. Also, if the chicks are tiny, sometimes it's good to put marbles in the water tray at first, because they can get in there and drown, believe it or not. That can happen to bantam chicks.

If you want chickens that provide nice brown eggs, get the red pullets from TSC. They are awesome egg layers. For bantams, I believe TSC sells the bantams mixed, and straight run, so that you really won't know what breed you're getting, so that'll be kind of fun because it's kind of a surprise to see what they grow up to look like. The bantams are a little bit more delicate as day old chicks, than the large fowl chicks, so you've gotta keep your eye on them.

Take care and I hope you have fun with your new chickens,
Sharon

 

[CatUT]

We use a 100 gal fish/snake/lizard tank for our baby chicks. It works great. We just put some pine shavings on the bottom, elevate the water and food a bit to keep the shavings out and then used one of the snake/lizard heat lamps at one end. It works great. The kids love it too. They can go in and watch the baby chicks. It's like chicken TV.

 

[Mike Fronczak]

Perfect thank I think it is about 100 gal, so it should work well. I figured there would be a use for it that's why I hadn't thrown it out.