What should we use in the bottom of our incubator for lock down & hatchday?

[Little Farm Girl]

Should we use shelf liner, a cloth, cedar shavings, or a wee wee pad in the bottom of our incubator for lockdown and hatch day? We want to try something other then paper towels this time, because it seems to dry out the hatching chicks and kill them during the hatching process.

Also, if anybody uses heat plates/pads of any kind as the warmth in your brooder, we would love to see pictures of your brooders, how you use them, your bedding, etc..

Thank you!

 

[crazy4ChickensNducks]

Definently DON'T use cedar shavings, that could easily kill the chicks

 

[Relleoms]

Puppy pee pad & plate warmer in our brooder. New girls arrive tomorrow!!! We used this setup last year with excellent results!

 

[Little Farm Girl]

Puppy pee pad & plate warmer in our brooder. New girls arrive tomorrow!!! We used this setup last year with excellent results!View attachment 1684202

AWESOME! That looks great, thank you so much for sharing We are definitely going to try puppy pads for the chicks this year!!!

 

[Little Farm Girl]

Definently DON'T use cedar shavings, that could easily kill the chicks

Why not? We use a cedar pine mix in our outdoor chick coops, and it keeps them extremely helathy & mite free...

 

[crazy4ChickensNducks]

the cedar shavings have toxic oils in them and can cause lots of respritory issues in adult birds. I imagine that it would do a lot worse to the chicks