Chick Dust!! Agghhhh....

[Chicken Fruit]

I dont keep chicks in the house after 4-5 weeks. I did ONCE and it was a MAJOR dusty messy mistake!

Hay bales and heat lamps make the coop floor warm enough for anything over 4 weeks- even in upstate NY in mach.

Blech. bleeeeeeech! I feel for ya!

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Chick dust is precisely the reason I stopped brooding chicks in the house years ago.

That stuff can float a long ways inside.

.....Alan.

 

[jettgirl24]

Mine are still little so I haven't experienced the dust issue... Yet...

Our house is pretty small so we have a laundry shed instead of a laundry room. it's insulated and stays pretty warm despite not being heated so I'll probably move the brooder set up out there in another week or two. I love having them close but I have to say, they are starting to smell up their brooder much mroe quickly than they were before!

 

[chickluver:D]

hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha dust!!!! hahahahahaha u poor soul!! hahahahahahahaha! just kidding..........................im bord
_______________________________
suprisingly i loooove bulldogs!

 

[IggiMom]

Maybe we need to start a lousy housekeeper thread!

I don't like the dust either. I always thought it was little tiny feathers they were dropping as they grew in bigger feathers, but I don't really know.

I REALLY intended for these chicks (in a box next to me) to be out in the hen house with a heat lamp before now, but somehow, the weather has NOT cooperated and it is just too cold, even with a lamp.

Sheesh.

Catherine

 

[Chicken Fruit]

Its the feather cuticle. as the feather grows its coated in a waxy cuticle and that slowly comes away and turns to dust. And then there's the dander of the skin itself. And then there's the dust from the bedding and the feed.....


uuuuugh.

TIP: Pellet bedding works much much better to slow the stink and mess. Not so much the dust- but its ONE thing less to deal with next time around- or even now.

 

[IggiMom]

Pellet bedding? What is that?

(I use pine shavings.)

Catherine

 

[Uzuri]

Compressed wood pellets -- they're really advertised for horse bedding, but they're amazing! Just pine sawdust in pellet form, basically, but they're so absorbent.

Be warned, if anything, they ADD to the dust, though I love 'em anyway.

 

[mstricer]

Quote:
You think that was bad I had my 17 orps in basement for nearly 17 weeks last year. Got smarter this year their in garage, cars are outside

 

[Armageddon]

I found the dust

I went and had closer look. I have nowhere else to put them yet.....It has rained the past four weekends and ONLY on the weekends......So, I haven't got my coop finished. DH would kill me if I moved the dusty chickens in the garage, with his garaged vehicles....