Tips for minimizing smell and dust in indoor brooder?

[Flixflaxnoob]

I'm in Western PA and will be getting about 2-week old chicks this weekend. The temps here are still dipping below freezing so I moved my brooder (cardboard-lined XL dog crate) to one corner of my kitchen far from food prep, but I'm sure I'm still underestimating how smelly and dusty it will be. I already run an air filter in the kitchen all day already. I will only have 6 chicks, so I'm hoping it won't be as bad. Any tips to minimizing the smell and dust? Here is what I am thinking so far:

• 3 inches of pine shaving flakes for bedding: planning to use a sort of deep litter method of aerating and adding additional layers of bedding on top + spot cleaning. Should I still be replacing all the bedding occasionally with this method? What other methods do people prefer to minimize mess?
• Elevate feeder and waterer on bricks: Should I add anything additional below to minimize moisture?
• Add roost bars: would this help to concentrate droppings to one area for easier cleaning?

 

[Debbie292d]

We use paper towels changed often the first 3-4 days, then horse bedding pellets. Those absorb the poop so no smell at all. We have two brooders in our living room and have no smells. There still is a little dust but it is reduced as the pellets let it sink in. We put a container of dirt/grit in there as of course, just like flakes, they'll eat a bit before they realize it's gross. 100% pine, so safe.

 

[Flixflaxnoob]

We use paper towels changed often the first 3-4 days, then horse bedding pellets. Those absorb the poop so no smell at all. We have two brooders in our living room and have no smells. There still is a little dust but it is reduced as the pellets let it sink in. We put a container of dirt/grit in there as of course, just like flakes, they'll eat a bit before they realize it's gross. 100% pine, so safe.

I was thinking of putting paper towels down under the bedding.

I already have pine shavings, so will be using that. The chicks will be almost 2 weeks old by the time I get them and I think they will already be accustomated to it.

 

[Debbie292d]

I was thinking of putting paper towels down under the bedding.

I already have pine shavings, so will be using that. The chicks will be almost 2 weeks old by the time I get them and I think they will already be accustomated to it.

May as well use them up, but I don't know that putting down paper towels beneath them helps with the smell. It's worth a try as it doesn't hurt anything.

We've used the horse bedding in our coop for about 8 years and only change that every spring, but it was only this past year we tried them in the brooders hearing others did that. Wow, game changer!!

 

[Huntmaster]

I would change out bedding as needed and not trying deep litter method. Paper towels under bedding may help with removing bedding / cleaning but won't help with smell. Keeping up with clean bedding you shouldn't have much of a smell. As far as dust that mostly comes from dander from chicks not much you can do about that but your air filter and dusting regularly.

 

[gtaus]

The temps here are still dipping below freezing so I moved my brooder (cardboard-lined XL dog crate) to one corner of my kitchen far from food prep, but I'm sure I'm still underestimating how smelly and dusty it will be.

For some reason, this thread showed up on my notifications. I am curious now to hear how you worked out your indoor brooder.

FWIW, I live in northern Minnesota. It is freezing out in my unheated garage when I buy my chicks. I have two heat lamps on the brooder at all times, with a remote thermometer under one of the lights to ensure that I keep the correct temps for their age. If one light should fail, the other should prevent the chicks from freezing. I can set a low temp alarm on my inside base station for the thermometer. Helps me sleep well at night knowing that the chicks are nice and warm in the freezing garage.

I used free wood chips this year in my brooder this year. I don't bother to change them out. I just fluff up the chips every once in a while and/or add new wood chips to the litter. That keeps the smell down. Well, good enough for the garage. I don't know how well it would control the smell if the brooder was in the house.

At the end of eight weeks, I dump all the brooder wood chips into the chicken run to compost in place. So, I only clean out the brooder once, at the end of the using it. That saves me a lot of labor time. I like using wood chips as deep bedding.

FYI, I have also used free paper shreds as brooder litter. That works just fine. I think that if I had the brooder inside the house, I would prefer to use the paper shreds and change them out more often. Paper shreds are much lighter than wood chips, they soak up the chicken poo just as well, and they compost much faster. Good stuff.

In any case, I think your ultimate goal might be to get those chicks and your brooder out of the house. Like I said, it gets below freezing in my unheated garage, but the heat lamps keep the chicks nice and warm.

 

[Flixflaxnoob]

For some reason, this thread showed up on my notifications. I am curious now to hear how you worked out your indoor brooder.

FWIW, I live in northern Minnesota. It is freezing out in my unheated garage when I buy my chicks. I have two heat lamps on the brooder at all times, with a remote thermometer under one of the lights to ensure that I keep the correct temps for their age. If one light should fail, the other should prevent the chicks from freezing. I can set a low temp alarm on my inside base station for the thermometer. Helps me sleep well at night knowing that the chicks are nice and warm in the freezing garage.

I used free wood chips this year in my brooder this year. I don't bother to change them out. I just fluff up the chips every once in a while and/or add new wood chips to the litter. That keeps the smell down. Well, good enough for the garage. I don't know how well it would control the smell if the brooder was in the house.

At the end of eight weeks, I dump all the brooder wood chips into the chicken run to compost in place. So, I only clean out the brooder once, at the end of the using it. That saves me a lot of labor time. I like using wood chips as deep bedding.

FYI, I have also used free paper shreds as brooder litter. That works just fine. I think that if I had the brooder inside the house, I would prefer to use the paper shreds and change them out more often. Paper shreds are much lighter than wood chips, they soak up the chicken poo just as well, and they compost much faster. Good stuff.

In any case, I think your ultimate goal might be to get those chicks and your brooder out of the house. Like I said, it gets below freezing in my unheated garage, but the heat lamps keep the chicks nice and warm.

After having raised chicks for the first time, I will definitely be keeping the brooder in the garage from the start next time. I was just a nervous beginner before. Still a beginner, not now not so nervous about keeping them in the garage. I will just need to use a bunch of extension cords to be able to use both the heat plate and space heater.

 

[gtaus]

After having raised chicks for the first time, I will definitely be keeping the brooder in the garage from the start next time. I was just a nervous beginner before. Still a beginner, not now not so nervous about keeping them in the garage. I will just need to use a bunch of extension cords to be able to use both the heat plate and space heater.

We all have different brooder setups. I would suggest getting some kind of remote thermometer for inside the brooder with a base station inside the house so you can check the temps easier. My base station has a low temp alarm that I can set and warn me if there is some kind of problem in the brooder. If it is freezing temps in the garage when you have the chicks out there, you want to have a ready backup for heat in case one fails.

After 30 years of brooding chicks, on and off, I am still a bit nervous the first week or two. Once they get over that hump, I start to relax a bit.

FYI, if you use an extension cord with a space heater, make sure you use a high quality extension cord rated for the space heater max wattage. Most space heaters max out at 15 amps, which requires a heavier extension cord...

Anyways, good to hear that everything worked out fine this year for you. Moving the chicks out to the garage next time will probably be better for you. I don't think Dear Wife would put up with the smell of the chicks in a brooder inside "her" house even if I cleaned the brooder out every day and put in fresh litter.