Pre Pads in Brooder Question

[3riverschick]

Hi,
I keep saying this over and over and sometimes I think nobody's listening.
don't give your baby chicks sand. it's too small and it won't help them. it will pass right on through the GI tract . wait one week and don't give them any grit of any kind the first week of life. . then start them out on chick grit . insoluble Granite chick Grit.
Note that there are three sizes of chicken grit, each to be given at a different stage of the birds development .
see the byc thread "the science of feeding grit to poultry ". In post 4 there's a hot link to a PDF. open the PDF and on the second page will be the instructions for what size grit to give the bird at each stage of development.
Best ,
Karen

 

[ChickNanny13]

I ferment the feed, never fed grit to chicks while in the brooder. When they're about 3 - 4wks & the weather's warm, I put them out in the mobile run in the afternoon. They scratch around but it's more like running crazy. I have some chick grit now which I will offer in a separate dish when i get my next batch of chicks.

 

[sevenfatcows]

Don't so Halogen lamps.
They get really hot & I've had them burst when some oil & dust got on the bulb.
Especially with chicks kicking up dust & all kinds of other stuff, I'd play it safe.

Otherwise I'll leave it to more experienced folks like lazy gardener

Good point and thanks. It is true that Halogen lamps get crazy hot within the lamp-about 1800 degrees. However, the ones that I use are called par lamps and are meant for heavy duty applications, usually outdoors; the glass of the lamp is extremely heavy so that it can be dropped and not break or explode, even if hot. The lamps meant for interior use in home lighting are fragile and got a very bad name about 20 years ago (or more) because of fires that started when torch type fixtures with these bulbs caused fires in places like college dorm rooms by being knocked over. Incidents of this type with these lamps (bulbs) caused many industry changes as well as updates to electric codes nationwide. So, you are right that they get hot, but the par lamps are safe and the other type are not even around that much any more having been superseded by LED lamps. I never even think about halogen lamps other than the par lamp variety.