I have 4 two week old chicks that are fond of pecking the ground and scraping it, and sleeping. Sometimes they will have the odd noise making break, but should I put something into the brooder with them? For example I was thinking of putting an old broom handle sawn off, in with them to perch on, but a quick search on duckduckgo suggests maybe to put in a branch and possibly a mirror and a small pile of dirt from the garden...

I am a little confused, as I thought that those sort of things (not including the mirror) might carry harmful things for them, do I need to clean the branches first? - I don't even want to ask about the garden dirt...

Can I throw a branch in with 2 week old chicks, or do I need to clean it first - and how? Or am I possibly over thinking that I need to much more careful than I actually need to be.

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[–] 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (6 children)

I'm a little unsure what a brooder is (non native English), but:

Edit: Looked up a brooder.

They live on the ground. Isn't their enclosure floor already dirt? "Garden dirt" is just dirt from another area, no?

Putting dirt in the brooder seems a little extra. Should be just fine with hay or sawdust or whatever you use at the moment. They might enjoy the mirror though!

Chickens are metal as fuck and not as dumb as people think.

Ontop of that they eat their young sometimes, they peck rats and mice to death and eat them, they eat bugs and frogs...

There's not very much from "nature" you could give them (within reason) that'd be harmful to them.

The broom handle perch is a nice thing to give them and you absolutely do not need to "clean" a branch from nature before giving it to them.

I'd also like to see the chickens, please.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    Not a great quality, I will try to get photos tomorrow, but this video is from a few minutes ago, I came into check on them, turn off radio and turned on a lamp behind them, they are wide awake and (still) running crazy.

    No more radio at night for them! /s

    https://streamff.pro/v/adce59c0

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 child)

    Yeah they'd love a branch. Looks like a high class chicken area. Appreciate the vid! 😃

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 2 months ago

    another reason to put a branch in.

    Just got a fright! I was glancing on them and one was asleep with it's neck back looking up and it's whole body was kinda tilted to the right.

    Eyes looked half open. I got a fright, made 'kissing' noises and the other three reacted, that one didn't.. I thought I'm going to have to put my hand in and take this one out to see what's going on.

    when I stood up over them, the other three started scattering, and it woke up and looked up and around.

    😪🥴

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