Official BYC Poll: What Bedding Do YOU Use in The Brooder?

[casportpony]

I use towels. I find it's easier to keep the brooder clean and I don't have to worry about them eating the bedding.

 

[3KillerBs]

I use towels. I find it's easier to keep the brooder clean and I don't have to worry about them eating the bedding.

In reading about people using towels or rags I have to wonder,

Are they difficult to get clean?

I have one of those water-saver washers with no agitator that doesn't even give me the option to set a higher water level manually and I have difficulty getting really dirty workclothes clean.

(I'd never buy one like this on purpose. It came in the house my SIL bought, she wanted a smaller machine, and she gave it to us when our old one had a catastrophic motor failure).

 

[casportpony]

In reading about people using towels or rags I have to wonder,

Are they difficult to get clean?

I have one of those water-saver washers with no agitator that doesn't even give me the option to set a higher water level manually and I have difficulty getting really dirty workclothes clean.

(I'd never buy one like this on purpose. It came in the house my SIL bought, she wanted a smaller machine, and she gave it to us when our old one had a catastrophic motor failure).

Not sure how clean you could get them in a water-saver washer. If you hose them off first with a high pressure nozzle they come pretty clean.

 

[3KillerBs]

Not sure how clean you could get them in a water-saver washer. If you hose them off first with a high pressure nozzle they come pretty clean.

I really hate water-saver appliances.

I don't live in a place where water is in short supply and it's hard to get stuff really CLEAN when you don't have enough water to carry the dirt away.

 

[SandyRiverChick]

I started thinking about this too.... Because I do use small hand towels and old cut in half Tshirts on top of my MHP that I just shake out and throw in the washer. But a whole towel on the brooder floor... hmmm. How many chicks? I think for me if I had to many chicks this would be a mess I wouldn't want to toss in the washer and usually when I get chicks I can't use the outdoor hose. Just a few chicks though, I really might do this next time...

 

[pinewoodacres]

They go outside on day 1 but they live in a tractor. I use a bin or box with a heat plate and pine shavings inside the tractor.

This last time, I gave them free run of the tractor from the get-go (with an open box turned on its side so they could go in, with the shavings and heater) and it seemed like they were overwhelmed by it. I also had one with something stuck in her crop I believe and she died. It could very well have been one of the pine shavings but it may also have been a piece of plant matter (we have mostly sand for our dirt which serves as grit, so I was fine with allowing them access). I had another that got her leg mangled somehow and she was just outside the heat plate and cold in the morning but still alive, so I had to cull her. That might have happened anyway if I was using the bin. But I think next time I will keep them in the bin again for the first week so they can get stronger and have a little less need for the heat. They don’t need a 4x8 tractor at that age, even if there are two dozen of them.

Pic is of overwhelmed day-old chicks. I ended up moving the water closer to the heat plates and the chicks to underneath them, and the next day after I had more hatch, I added a cardboard barrier so they had less room, but then they snuck through anyway so I took it back out. One of these is the one that got the mangled leg. I feel so bad still.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

In reading about people using towels or rags I have to wonder,

Are they difficult to get clean?

I have one of those water-saver washers with no agitator that doesn't even give me the option to set a higher water level manually and I have difficulty getting really dirty workclothes clean.

(I'd never buy one like this on purpose. It came in the house my SIL bought, she wanted a smaller machine, and she gave it to us when our old one had a catastrophic motor failure).

Well, as I have learned since my post about using towels, yeah, they are kind of tricky to clean in water-savers. Our last washer crapped out and we replaced it with one of those without the agitator in April, and it took me 4 washes to get my brooder towels cleaned. They only cleaned after I added some old jeans for bulk on the fourth round.

So, I guess I wouldn't necessarily say they're difficult to get cleaned, but it requires that you're willing to wash something in addition to them for added bulk in such washers.

 

[3KillerBs]

Well, as I have learned since my post about using towels, yeah, they are kind of tricky to clean in water-savers. Our last washer crapped out and we replaced it with one of those without the agitator in April, and it took me 4 washes to get my brooder towels cleaned. They only cleaned after I added some old jeans for bulk on the fourth round.

So, I guess I wouldn't necessarily say they're difficult to get cleaned, but it requires that you're willing to wash something in addition to them for added bulk in such washers.

When this one dies we're going to hunt for one with a manual water level setting.

DH does landscape and maintenance and my trick for getting his work clothes clean if they had clay mud on them was to put in a small load but set the water for a large one so that they'd have plenty of sloshing space and fluid to carry away the mess.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I'll try that out next time the brooder towels need washed. I know they're getting cleaned in the washer so it's probably fine, but I'm somehow put off by the thought of putting my good clothes in the wash with poopy towels.

 

[NatJ]

I'm somehow put off by the thought of putting my good clothes in the wash with poopy towels.

You could do it with clothes that are not your "good" ones.

If you just need more bulk in the washer to make it work right, you don't even really need to use DIRTY clothes. You could pull out your oldest, most worn/stained/faded things, and throw them in for the purpose. If certain kinds of things work better than others-- like jeans vs. t-shirts-- then of course use ones of the right type.