So today.....

[arlee453]

Dust is from the pine shavings used as bedding in the brooder. They can stir up quite a bit of dust as they practice their scratching around.

 

[GwenFarms]

Snakes rarely make it out of my coop alive. Chickens are pretty good snake killers. I have seen pics and heard stories of egg eating snakes, however, I think they are already there and taking advantage of a food source and not neccesarily attracted by the chickens.

As for dust, you can avoid it by not using shavings. I much prefer corn cob litter. You can find it at TSC, or your pet shop. You could also use pine pellets. Both of these are dust free, which is healthier for your family if you raise them in the house and the chicks. I raise mine in the barn, but still use cob litter. It drains better than pine litter and doesn't hold moisture on top of being dust free. Its very important to keep your chicks dry. Be sure and set your waterer on a platform to keep their bedding as dry as possible.

Good Luck With Them!

 

[mamaboyd]

We didn't keep or day olds in the house, but we did run an extension cord out to the coop to run the heat lamp. We had 60 chicks, and we only lost 2, and that was in the first week. One got the splayed legs and got too weak, the other one, it was like a runt. This was our first time ever with chickens. On the other side, the guy who rents our land for cattle used to raise chickens for eggs, and he said we wouldn't get eggs during the winter from our hens. Well, we proved him wrong because we had a light on a timer and we got lots of eggs. The only reason we didn't keep the day olds in the house, well, we have 3 dogs, 2 cats and 5 kids, and we just didn't have the room for them inside to keep them. They did fine outside in the coop, but than again it was in My when we got them.