I have a brooder/grow-out box that I built this winter, dimensions:
3 ft tall by 5 ft long, by 3 ft wide. Here's a picture of what it looked like before yesterday:
I initially installed 1/2 inch hardware cloth as the flooring, with the intention of getting them up out of the muck and increasing the air circulation in there. After a few months of use, it became very clear that it was not working. Plus, the rats had taken to running underneath there and bedeviling the poor little chicks, while they ate the spilled food.
I emptied the chicks out, turned it over and tore out the hardware cloth, replaced it with a solid floor of treated 2x4's, righted it and then lined the floor with bricks. On top of the bricks, I put down a thin layer of clean play sand, and topped that off with pine shavings. Does this sound like a good system?
3 ft tall by 5 ft long, by 3 ft wide. Here's a picture of what it looked like before yesterday:
I initially installed 1/2 inch hardware cloth as the flooring, with the intention of getting them up out of the muck and increasing the air circulation in there. After a few months of use, it became very clear that it was not working. Plus, the rats had taken to running underneath there and bedeviling the poor little chicks, while they ate the spilled food.
I emptied the chicks out, turned it over and tore out the hardware cloth, replaced it with a solid floor of treated 2x4's, righted it and then lined the floor with bricks. On top of the bricks, I put down a thin layer of clean play sand, and topped that off with pine shavings. Does this sound like a good system?
