What type of bedding???

[RW19290]

I have been using pine shaving as bedding for my chicks, but it gets into their food and water and I am sick of cleaning their water every 15 min. what type of bedding is not as messy but absorbent? Any answers/suggestions would be helpful. thanks!!! ~Ruby

 

[portlandpeeps]

we used paper towels and changed them 2x a day. This seemed to work well and kept the brooder from being too slippery.

 

[gritsar]

Raise your waterer up on something. We used some 1 ft. x 1 ft. squares of wood to raise it high enough so that the chicks have to reach up just a little to get a drink. Cuts way down on the shavings in the waterer. As the chicks grew we just added another block of wood (we had plenty).
Once the chicks are a couple of weeks old, you can do the same thing with their feeder if you don't have a feeder that can be hung. It will cut down on them scratching and kicking their feed out of the feeder.
You'll want to raise both the waterer and the feeder so that the base of the feeder/waterer is level with the smallest chickens back.

 

[CarlaRiggs]

How old are the chicks?
When my were large enough (which didn't take long!) I placed the water/food container up onto a piece of wood, and then later a brick. This way they weren't able to kick up the pine shavings into the containers.
Where are you keeping your chicks? If they're in a coop already, you may be able to hang the water/food on a length of chain and then raise the containers up as the chicks grow. I've noticed this also helps to prevent the hens from billeting out the food.

Carla

 

[zatsdeb]

I also use a brick to raise my feeder, waterers. it sucks getting the pine shavings out of the water! I would not use any other kind of bedding though, it is so much nicer to clean up, and controls odors better.

 

[mlmadura]

I lined my brooder with paper towels and put pine shavings over it.

I also elevated my waterer on a brick and covered all but about a 2 inch strip with tape - so this way they don't get shavings all in it.

I also taped one side of my feeder because they liked to roost on it and therefore poop in it

 

[cloudswinger]

I'm using shredded newspaper. I just run my old newspaper through a paper shredder and scrunch it up. It's in strips, so they can't kick it up very well. It gives the chicks something to pick at too.

Hey, I have that same waterer. I have the round version of the feeder, and the little chicks like to crawl inside through the top.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Please be very careful with that! Other BYC'ers have lost chicks/chickens due to them climbing inside feeders and getting suffocated on the bottom of the pile.

 

[RW19290]

Quote:
My chicks are 5 days old. I just got them from Welp Hatchery.

 

[RW19290]

Quote:
Please be very careful with that! Other BYC'ers have lost chicks/chickens due to them climbing inside feeders and getting suffocated on the bottom of the pile.

How can I prevent that? My chicks aren't flying yet, but when do, I'm afraid that they might die like you said.