Cleaning/disinfecting for new chicks

[AGeese]

Bleach is straight up nasty. I wouldn't use it because it tears me up something fierce so unless you let it air out a week I wouldn't.

You can use vinegar, but can also use Hydrogen peroxide, which I keep stocked up on.

You could also dilute some Isopropyl alcohol, but vinegar is probably going to be the most mild of them all, which isn't bad. I'm not necessarily in the scorched earth camp myself.

 

[nanobooboo]

If you had purchased the place and had an old used brooder or coop I'd suggest cleaning the old loose stuff out and spraying it with a disinfecting solution. I use a weak bleach solution for that kind of stuff but there are other disinfectants. I don't measure the bleach but it's around a one part bleach to 10 parts water solution. That's probably a lot stronger than it has to be. Vinegar could do you some good but I don't know what strength vinegar you would need. In any case, air it out for a few days before you put chickens in.

This is before you get your first chickens out of an abundance of caution. The reason I'd do this is that you don't know what might have been in there. Since I have not had any diseases in the brooder I clean the loose stuff out and make sure it stays dry before each new batch. No disinfecting. I don't see a reason too.

Where you are now in the process and not knowing of anything specific to be concerned about I'd not worry about it. Keep the brooder or coop dry and you are highly unlikely to have problems.


I'm not sure where you are coming from with this? Hens have been hatching and raising chicks in "it" (whatever "it" is) since before they were domesticated and they did not go extinct. I let my hens hatch and raise chicks in the flock (probably in "it") and those chicks are as strong and healthy as my brooder-raised chicks.

One reason my brooder-raised chicks are as healthy is that I put some dirt from the run in the brooder for them to eat. That gets the chicks any probiotics the adults have to share, gets grit in their system, and gets them started on any flock immunities they may need. Chicks raised by a broody automatically share these things because they are exposed to "it" from her if not the rest of the flock.
Maybe I'm totally misunderstanding what you mean by this?

CLASSIC!