Hello Everyone!We are about to get our 4 Delaware chicks next week. They'll be just days old (just the thought that they are still in their eggs, ready to hatch within a few days is thrilling!).We have been reading so many books, my husband attended Myron's class at the Downtown Farmer's Market, and still we are not sure where to keep them the first few weeks. We want to make sure they have enough space and are safe from our family cat and 2 dogs.So my latest idea was to turn over one of our bathrooms to the chicks, section off half of it (so we can still safely open the door without hurting any little chicks) and let them roam in their half of the bathroom, putting down newspaper and possibly straw too. We also have a dog kennel, I thought, we could use as their nighttime shelter - that way if one of our children accidentally opened the bathroom door in the middle of the night our cat couldn't harm the chicks.I have read to expect a mess with chickens inside, dust everywhere and so. I thought by giving them one room of the house, we could contain the mess, while still be able to go and socialize with them.Am I crazy? Is this idea completely nuts? Maybe I am missing something from lack of experience that you can fill me in about. I really appreciate your thoughts. Thank you!MarenP.S.: We only want to keep the chicks inside for about 6 weeks, until they are big enough and it's warm enough for them to go live in the coop outside.
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Just letting you know that I used the feline pine and also yesterday's news (compressed newspaper) in my brooder. I didn't cover it with newspaper and the chicks did fine. I like it better than pine shavings because it is less dusty and I am always afraid the chicks will eat the pine shavings because it's the same color as their food. I also used a big plastic tub (the kind with the white rope handles) as my brooder and covered that with a metal grate type lid.
Good luck!
I am glad to hear you also used the Feline Pine and it worked for your chicks. I was starting to wonder if I should use pine shavings as well, as it seems to be the preferred material. Now I am going to stick with the Feline Pine and hope our chicks will be fine with it too. It's a great litter for our cat - no smell, compostable and long-lasting.
Yes, I love Feline Pine and Yesterday's news, but my finicky cat refuses to use it so I had some left over and used it for the chicks, glad I did, I think it works great! A little goes a long way.
I just noticed your name, you should get a Maran chick, haha, that would be perfect.
Enjoy your chicks, they are so much fun and really are good pets. We love ours!
I would definitely stick to keeping them enclosed in a rubbermaid or even just a cardboard box is fine. There is no reason to give chicks free reign of anything, they're just likely to get into something, or get too far from their heat lamp, get cold and die. You don't need to change the shavings daily if you have just a few chicks, you'll see that it won't get that messy, especially for the first couple of weeks. However after a couple of weeks they'll be able to fly out of it. Chicks grow fast!
-I would put their waterer up on a piece of wood, or small brick (as long as the chicks can still reach it) otherwise they kick tons of pine shavings into the water and are cleaning it out constantly.
- Paper towels are better to cover than newspaper if you're concerned about chicks eating the shavings (I've never had that happen) as newspaper is slick and can cause spraddle leg.
-You can use a regular clamp light that you can get at any hardware store and a regular 60 watt bulb. It's more important to use actual "heat lamp" bulbs if you have your chicks outside in a barn or someplace where it actually gets cold. Be sure to give your chicks space to get away from the heat lamp if they get too hot (you want it to one side of the container rather than the middle).
Thank you for your advice, Rachel! I'll definitely have to elevate their food and water.
I am testing a regular lamp right now. I have decided on using a large dog carrier, enclosed on three sides, and have reinforced the wire door with mesh small enough that neither the chicks can stick their heads through, not our cat her paws in. I have placed the lamp on the outside, in one corner of the door. But the temperature isn't rising much above 80 degrees - I thought the chicks need it at 95 degrees the first few days.
What we did is take a 45 gallon rubbermaid tub and cut out the center of the top (we left a thin bar down the middle for support.) and then bolted hardware cloth to it. Have the head of the bolt inside so the chicks can't hurt themselves.
I use pine shavings in the bottom and change it daily. I only put down about an inch or two since I am changing it so often. There is dust but not nearly as much as I thought there would be. I put a branch in there on the floor that just had a little bend to it and they have always liked "perching" on that. Last week I put a perch in the tub about 5" from the floor and 1" in dia. I read somewhere to use 1/2" but it seemed too small for them.
I got a clamp on light fixture from the hardware dept and but in a regular 100 watt bulb but now I am thinking about getting a 65 watt one. I really don't know how hardy / fragil they are and how much I have to worry about adjusting the temperature at this stage. We have let them outside for a couple of hours in a run and they seem to really like that.
We keep them in the utilty room. They are starting to look big in the tub. Everybody who comes over said there is no smell and they are surprised we have chickens in the house.
Those are great pictures! Thank you for sharing them and your experience! That brooder looks pretty impressive. Where did you get that plastic feeder from? We have one of those but it's metal and the other day I cut myself on it - which makes me wonder if the chicks could hurt themselves too.
Happy chicken-raising to you!
I got the feeders at the feed store when I bought the chicks. I live in Mesa and went to Mesa Feed Barn. But I think any feed store would carry them.
Yes do put the feeder and waterer up on blocks. I did this after the first week and it made a huge difference and how clean the water stayed and their supply of feed lasted longer.
Now that I am looking at the picture of the brooder from the first day I remember that I replaced the bolts with 1/2" long ones so they wouldn't stick up so far. I found them at Lenhard's Ace hardware in Mesa they have a Bolt Room where they have odd sized hardware.
We got 3 chicks back in September and kept them in a Rubbermaid bin as well for the first days (holes are required if you keep the lid on!). We borrowed our neighbor's reptile heat bulb and hung it so they could choose how warm or cool they wanted to be. We also used our electronic cooking thermometer to gauge the temperature and could set a warning if it got too hot. We used shavings and removed it as needed into the compost. I kept paper towels under the shavings to make clean up quick.
When they got older, we moved them into a dog kennel in the back bedroom so we could close the door and not worry about the cat. We have 2 dogs and 1 cat, and they are all pretty well trained. It was easier to start day one to train the dogs and cat to leave the chicks alone. I spent a lot of time with them all together so I could let the dogs and cat know what kind of interaction was ok and what was too much. It's like with kids - kids can smother a chick or break one pretty quickly and you have to watch the chicks around anything.
The chicks in the dog kennel provided a kind of "TV" for my Shepherd, Chaos was mesmerized, the other mutt, not so much. Bucky could tell the chicks were not tennis balls and to this day doesn't pay much attention to them. Because of the extensive training when the chicks were young (not to mention the training the dogs received prior to even having chicks) we have been very happy with the relationship between the dogs and chickens now. As for the cat, I never trusted her alone with the chickens. When supervised, she was ok, but I wouldn't trust them.
I kept the chicks in the house WAY too long, but they became very sweet pets who are very used to being handled because they grew up in the middle of the house.
Replies
Good luck!
I just noticed your name, you should get a Maran chick, haha, that would be perfect.
Enjoy your chicks, they are so much fun and really are good pets. We love ours!
-I would put their waterer up on a piece of wood, or small brick (as long as the chicks can still reach it) otherwise they kick tons of pine shavings into the water and are cleaning it out constantly.
- Paper towels are better to cover than newspaper if you're concerned about chicks eating the shavings (I've never had that happen) as newspaper is slick and can cause spraddle leg.
-You can use a regular clamp light that you can get at any hardware store and a regular 60 watt bulb. It's more important to use actual "heat lamp" bulbs if you have your chicks outside in a barn or someplace where it actually gets cold. Be sure to give your chicks space to get away from the heat lamp if they get too hot (you want it to one side of the container rather than the middle).
I am testing a regular lamp right now. I have decided on using a large dog carrier, enclosed on three sides, and have reinforced the wire door with mesh small enough that neither the chicks can stick their heads through, not our cat her paws in. I have placed the lamp on the outside, in one corner of the door. But the temperature isn't rising much above 80 degrees - I thought the chicks need it at 95 degrees the first few days.
Maren
What we did is take a 45 gallon rubbermaid tub and cut out the center of the top (we left a thin bar down the middle for support.) and then bolted hardware cloth to it. Have the head of the bolt inside so the chicks can't hurt themselves.
I use pine shavings in the bottom and change it daily. I only put down about an inch or two since I am changing it so often. There is dust but not nearly as much as I thought there would be. I put a branch in there on the floor that just had a little bend to it and they have always liked "perching" on that. Last week I put a perch in the tub about 5" from the floor and 1" in dia. I read somewhere to use 1/2" but it seemed too small for them.
I got a clamp on light fixture from the hardware dept and but in a regular 100 watt bulb but now I am thinking about getting a 65 watt one. I really don't know how hardy / fragil they are and how much I have to worry about adjusting the temperature at this stage. We have let them outside for a couple of hours in a run and they seem to really like that.
We keep them in the utilty room. They are starting to look big in the tub. Everybody who comes over said there is no smell and they are surprised we have chickens in the house.
brooder.jpg
chicks 1st day.jpg
almost 4 weeks.jpg
Happy chicken-raising to you!
Maren
Yes do put the feeder and waterer up on blocks. I did this after the first week and it made a huge difference and how clean the water stayed and their supply of feed lasted longer.
When they got older, we moved them into a dog kennel in the back bedroom so we could close the door and not worry about the cat. We have 2 dogs and 1 cat, and they are all pretty well trained. It was easier to start day one to train the dogs and cat to leave the chicks alone. I spent a lot of time with them all together so I could let the dogs and cat know what kind of interaction was ok and what was too much. It's like with kids - kids can smother a chick or break one pretty quickly and you have to watch the chicks around anything.
The chicks in the dog kennel provided a kind of "TV" for my Shepherd, Chaos was mesmerized, the other mutt, not so much. Bucky could tell the chicks were not tennis balls and to this day doesn't pay much attention to them. Because of the extensive training when the chicks were young (not to mention the training the dogs received prior to even having chicks) we have been very happy with the relationship between the dogs and chickens now. As for the cat, I never trusted her alone with the chickens. When supervised, she was ok, but I wouldn't trust them.
I kept the chicks in the house WAY too long, but they became very sweet pets who are very used to being handled because they grew up in the middle of the house.
~ Liz
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