Storage box brooder flooring?

[Kayla1baker]

I have bobwhites hatching soon wondering what's best for flooring in the storage container as I see people use many different things like news paper, paper towels, and chicken wire but worried about there feet getting stuck or the chick getting hurt!?

 

[BYCforlife]

Definitely a no to the chicken wire, paper towels would be best because they have a nice grippy texture.

 

[Kayla1baker]

Perfect thank you so much!!!

 

[BYCforlife]

No problem! Good luck with your hatch!

 

[The Phantom]

I like a thick bed of super fine pine shavings.

 

[Kayla1baker]

Thank you

 

[imneva]

I use puppy pads for the 1st few days. Then add pine shavings foe a week more then ditch the pads and use pine shavings on top of rubber shelf liner. Pdz on the very bottom of that.

 

[Erkenstein]

Packed-down pine shavings with a layer of paper towels on top, then rubber shelf liner with holes on top of that. Paper towel is too slippery, but if you use it under the shelf liner you can sprinkle food on the floor for the hatchlings and it will soak up moisture. After the first couple of days, once chicks have their legs under them, either remove the paper towel/shelf liner layer and have them on pine shavings or (my preference) add a clean layer of paper towels to the top every day.

 

[Lady_Bat]

I've heard that news paper is way too slick & will hurt their legs. For ours, we lined the bottom with puppy pads in an overlapping manner, secured with duct tape, then covered that with pine shavings. Since they love to scratch around the pine shavings get moved, somehow they seemed to spill water a fair amount, & man, do they poop a lot! The puppy pads were easy to roll up (like a giant sushi roll) during clean up. It kept our bin clean, the baby's never hurt their legs, & cleaning took way less time. We got them in bulk from costco as well on chewy.com. If you do a bit of searching online, you can find a great price.

 

[For my girl]

I use free hay that I get from my local feedstore. They let people sweep up hay for free where they keep their bales. I get several trash bags at a time and cut it up with a hedgetrimmer. The adults love having a box of it to play in and lay eggs in, and I line the brooders with it. In the brooders it works best with some large flake shavings (don't use the fine because they will eat it). If I weren't going for as cheap and replenish-able as possible then I would just use the shavings. When it's somewhat dirty I put it under the quail pens for a couple of days - and then it goes into my compost.