Unsecure chicken perches

[CatsCube]

Hi all, Im tryong to work out how to house my chicks for the first few weeks. Im hoping that being summer on the east coast the weather will allow them to go into the outside house at about 4/6 weeks. Now whenever I look at home brooders they are tiny things which Im guessing are really only suitable for the fist week. Now I currently have about 20 in the incubator and then will have about another 10 eggs being set straight after at my sons school so the chicks will have about a 4 week age gap. With each batch I will start them off in an indoor guinea pig cage for about a week then Im going to need to build some sort of brooder box for the remaining weeks. They are going to be in the study so Im hoping to have as little mess as possible. so Im thinking to use wood for the base and sides up to about 60cm high to minimise dust being flung out everywhere, then put a bit of weldmesh over the top. Now as this will be housing about 20 pekin chicks at a time how big should I build this?

 

And secondly, is their anything else I need to do? they will be getting natural daylight, is this okay, or o I need to have it dark with a red light? Im planning on getting an electric hen, as it will provide heat for a large number of chicks than the brinsea model. do I need to make any sort of seperate sleeping area, and should I have multiple eating and drinking stations?

[Tweety]

Hi,

 

I have recently hatched 7 Frizzle bantams, and cannot believe how quickly they have outgrown the accommodation I had for them, so I would say build bigger rather than smaller. You can always put some sort of divider in a large brooder for the first few days, so that the chicks don't stray too far from the electric hen.

I had mine in a large propagator 18 x 14 inches for the first week. For the next 2 weeks they were in a guinea pig cage 26 x 16 inches, then in a larger guinea pig cage 4 x 2 feet for 2 weeks, and are now in an eglu go & standard run.

Natural daylight will be fine for them, they will sleep under the electric hen so you don't need a separate sleeping area, and with that number of chicks multiple food and water stations are a good idea.

Sorry I can't be more specific with brooder measurements, but hope the details above will give you some idea of the size you will need.

[CatsCube]

Thank you. I have worked out a bit of a change in plan, as Im going to use the playroom (currently the dogs sleeping quarters) she can sleep in the lounge instead and the playroom can become chicken room, so I can make a pretty big brooder, I thought if I literally gaffa tape the sides of wood together than I can easily take it down to store when not in use, and maybe make it 1 x 2 meters? with easybed in the base.

[Tweety]

Bearing in mind that not all of your eggs will hatch successfully, that should be ok. If you find that you need to extend the brooder, it should be easy to do so if you are using tape to hold it together.

For the first few days, until all the chicks are eating from their feeders, it is best to use a clean towel or J cloths on the floor in the brooder. Easybed will be fine thereafter.

[CatsCube]

yes for the first week I will keep them in the guinea pig cage with jcloths on the bottom, that way I will know how many I have had hatch before I but the large house together. How often should I look at replacing the beading from the large brooder, Im trying to work out the logistics of getting all the chicks out, putting them somewhere and then loading them all back in again!

 

Also I have been told chicks stink! how bad are we talking? my playroom joins onto my living room via french doors, am I going to be stinking out the whole downstairs of my house?

[Tweety]

I changed the bedding in the brooder twice a week. They are pretty smelly at first, but I found that the smell improved greatly once I put them on proper bedding - Hemcore, in my case, which is what I use for my other hens and which is slightly citronella scented. Keep the French doors shut and you should be ok!

[CatsCube]

yeah hemcore is a nightmare to get hold of around here, hopefully easybed will work as well, it just lacks the citrus smell. do you think it would be an option to add a little bokashi to the chick crumb to keep things smelling better or is it unsuitable for chicks tummys?

[CatsCube]

Ah i just found my answer, wiggly wigglers do a chick crumb with bokashi mixed in, might have to give that a go.