Good evening all! I just went to the clean the brooder and I am out of paper towels, the chicks were born 3/23 (almost 2 weeks) and the keet is almost a week old. I don't want any splayed legged chickies. Can I switch to newspaper or do I need to go to the store?
Thanks!
At what age do can you switch to newpaper?
Lora, if I'm not mistaken, someone posted that you could change to newspaper at about a week. Since the two times we got day-olds we used it right from the start and never had a splayed legged chick, I think you would be safe starting now. ^_^
Thanks! I am going to put an old towel over by where they sleep just in case they have a hard time getting up.
Thanks again!
you're welcome
i know it seems cost porhibitive, but i really like the footing they get with using either their crumble feed or wood chips, or a combination of the two. they get used to scartching and digging, and get to take baths, and you don't have to deal with them ripping up and eating, yes EATING the newspaper. and when it gets wet, YUCK! stinks too.
granted, it is a good use of a recyclable product and it's free!
but surely, like GG says, you should be safe to switch!
if you see one sitting by itself chirping and away from the others and the water feed, it likely has begun to splay and is painful to walk, so keep a close watch.
tf
TF, I decided to try the wood shavings thingy this time, and now am thinking about using them in the large henhouse because I like the way it works. We have been using wheat straw, but that doesn't absorb the moisture quite as well as the shavings. It might be a little more expensive, but then again, maybe not as wheat straw is hard to find around here. We have to go 35 miles away to get it and can get the shavings about 15 miles away. So, I am going to think about it and see.
We can get sawdust for nothing, but I would have to be sure that there is no cedar in that. We have sawmills all over the place, since we are in a state forest which is next to a federal forest and forest products are our main industries here.
and you can try the deep litter method with the wood shavings. add chamomile weekly. it will all decompose into some really nice graden amendment! our chips are so big the chicks can't eat them, but they love to grab one and play keep away LOL
Won't work. Our floor is cement. So, we can't use the deep litter method. and yep, the shavings are pretty big. That's one reason I am not really considering getting sawdust. The other of course being I don't know if they are cutting cedar and if they did, it would be mixed up with all the other and I won't take a chance on that.
so is mine... & different types of grass hay & straw get mixed in as well.
really annoying, with all those nests & all that nice bedding, when the bigger girls make a nst on the floor down to the bare concrete, UGH!
True, especially when they decide to make that next UNDER the nesting boxes.
fortunately, for some reason, these hens we have now haven't been doing that, nor have they been laying their eggs all over the yard like the others we had. I think I have found only one egg on the floor with this flock.
Since we use hay in the nesting boxes, some of that gets thrown out of the nests so it is mixed with the straw. But, I still like the idea of the shavings. Something else, I notice since what we got is pine shavings, there is no odor to the chicks. That was a problem using newspaper without the shavings the last two times we had chicks in the garage. So that's another plus for them.
Granny--I love shavings! And your right, they smell a lot less than when they are on newpaper. You can just keep tossing more in and stirring it up and eventually you can use it in the compost pile.
I normally start the new chicks on paper towels than shavings covered by paper towels then wood shavings. Unfortunately my brooder I used last year is outside buried in a snow bank. Its a giant plastic dog kennel. So I have to use an old bird cage laying on its side, I covered the bottom newpaper than paper towels so they don't have walk on bars. And wrapped most of it in an old blanket and quilt. I open the front (now top door) for cleaning , feeding and watering. Everything as small as chicks needs to be locked up safe in a cat proof brooder. My kitties don't bother with my parrots, they LOVE lil chickies.
In my coop I did the layering thing this winter, no cleaning, just put new clean material on top. Now that is going to fun to clean this spring! A great job for DH!
For the rest of the year I use shaving and straw for the silkies.
I use those drawer liners that are rubbery. Then you can hose them off and reuse them, plus they grip really well, so no splay legs! After a while I add in shavings or some dirt for variety.
BackyardHens,
Love the idea of drawer liners! I can buy a lot and recycle through them daily. Clean the used ones and so on. I've had dirty newspaper with other birds and the birds get grimy looking from the newsprint rubbing off on their feathers.
MollyD
i use pine shaveings from hatch and never had a prob and i use it with my adult flock also. mine have smaller chips and they may peck and play at them once in a great while but i've never had a prob with them eating them.
definately do not use cedar it is toxic to birds. with that there is a chemical that it makes with the amonia pee and basically gasses them with toxic fumes if that makes sence. can't think of what it's called but birds and small animals don't use it with them.
sawdust and things like that with little particals of dust is not good for birds either it gets in their sinuses and causes respitory probs.
I was telling people over on the hosta forum about cedar being toxic for most animals but I don't think they believed me even though I gave them links to studies on this. Oh well I tried.
MollyD
Thanks, silkie, we have quite a few sawmills around here and we could get sawdust for free, but I was leery of doing that because I don't know what kind of wood they are cutting. They do cut cedar sometimes and I wasn't about to get sawdust that had that in it. Never thought about the dust getting in their sinuses.
Well, we will be using shavings.
when i can get sawdust i put it around my lilacs.
go figure Molly, some people just don't listen!
yep their answer is we've always done this and haven't seen a problem so there is no problem . What can you do once you've let them know about it?
MollyD
funny, i picture flamingos or ostriches? with their heads in sand holes. they don't see a fire coming up behind them till their tail feathers are burning LOL
Well I expect that when there is a problem they attribute it to everything but the cedar they've been using. Even some people can't be around it! I don't use it to store my clothes because it makes me choke (like an allergy attack).
MollyD
Molly, that is not "like" an allergy attack, that IS an allergy attack. Anytime something interferes with your breathing, it is an allergy attack. I know, I have allergies up the ying-yang.
Ah that explains why it makes me feel so bad. I stay as far as I can from cedar.
MollyD