I know most people commonly use wood shavings for bedding raising baby chicks in and then I saw at the Grange Co-Op in Central Point they had wood pellets in their troughs for their chicks for sale saying they clean it out once a week, replacing the wood pellets. So I guess the chicks waddle around in a weeks amount of built up poo in either shavings or wood pellets? In no way am I knocking anyone but to me that seems so unsanitary and stinky to boot, let alone spendy for all that bedding purchased. Plus also my concerns are for when using medicated feed I wouldnt want to add those shavings with chick poo into my compost for my gardens either, so it would go out into the trash. I also read an article today that if chicks are raised in pretty clean not crowded environments that medicated feed was not even necessary. I happened to read that after I already purchased a 50# of medicated starter feed. LOL I personally prefer using newspapers to line the bottom of the trough for padding with sections of paper towels on top. The chicks have great foot traction and a warm dry clean place to lay and sleep. To clean daily, and as they get older a couple times a day, I easily roll up the small two connected sections of paper towels with the poo on one side of the trough while the chicks move gently to the other side and replace it with clean paper towels, then do the same on the other side, with minimal fuss on the part of the chicks. Its also amazing how much starter feed youll notice that they scatter and waste if you cant see it mixed in the wood shavings, but on the paper towels you will see how much you are throwing away. After the chicks are a couple days to a week old I start pulling the feeder out and that encourages them to learn to peck at the food off the ground clearly seen on the paper towels that they have scattered about and they begin to clean it up. I am a newby to raising chicks, just over 2 yrs., but a bit anal. LOL I welcome any insight, input or criticism on my thoughts on this.
Posted on: Mon, 07 Apr 2014 05:10:47 +0000
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