Brooder Advice Needed

[YourLostSock]

Hello! I have 5 4 week old Easter Egger chicks. The brooder they are currently in gives them 1.25 sq feet per bird. They seem cramped in there. So question one is- is that enough space? I let them out of the brooder multiple times a day to run around the spare bedroom (outdoors is currently too cold).
Question 2: How do I keep them fed and watered?They have outgrown their first feeder, so for a while I was just putting food in the clay pot until I could figure something else out. A store owner at the feed store told me to use this long, rectangular feeder with holes in it. They seem reluctant to fit their heads through it and really only eat from it when I open it up. The feeder and waterer also get constantly filled with pine shavings. And the waterer sometimes leaks all over the pine shavings or gets topped over by the birds It all seems messy, inefficient, and unsanitary!
I have seen hanging feeders and nipple waterers but I have nothing I can hang them from.

I love my birds, I want them to be comfortable, and I’m embarrassed because I feel like I’m not doing a good job. Please give advice!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

It is starting to get there. Sometimes you have to work with what you have. Especially if you can't put them outside yet nor have electricity in the coop. What do you call too cold? Where are you located?
A Rubbermaid type tub is a good place to start them but no expansion is possible if they must stay inside longer. If brooding indoors, I prefer large moving boxes from Lowes or Home Depot. They are about $1.50 each and the space is expandable as they grow by cutting doors between boxes and when you move the chicks outside, the boxes can be composted, feces, bedding and all.
Feed stores will recommend the products they carry, not necessarily what is best. There are long rectangular feeders like you mentioned but they don't have the lid with the holes. They just have a bar running the length of the feeder that spins and keeps the chicks from perching on it. The one with the holes is only for the first couple weeks. If you have one of those, you can remove the lid temporarily and just let them eat out of the trough.
I really don't recommend chick feeders and water founts for people who don't constantly raise chicks. Just go directly to adult feeders and founts.
I like the hanging ones that you can keep raising. Otherwise you need to use bricks to keep elevating them so the rim is at about back height so they don't kick bedding and feces into them.
It may be too late for this advice but I don't like the heat lamps the sell and that you are using. Firstly they are too hot for the small space your birds are in. If using a brooder fixture like you have, I prefer a ceramic heating element so you can provide a daily dark period for your chicks. Better yet is a heat plate like those from Premier1.
Your chicks probably won't need heat more than a couple more weeks if that. At 4 weeks, in room temperature, they don't need heat at all.

 

[NewBoots]

Not an expert at all but they look to be too big for your chick feeder. I would fill that clay dish with feed and then put it and the waterer up on blocks to help keep shavings and poop out of them. That bin looks too small to me as well. Good luck, they look like they are doing well so far.

 

[YourLostSock]

Thank you both so much, I deeply appreciate it!

 

[rosemarythyme]

The reason they look so cramped for space is because the feeder and waterer eat up quite a lot of space, and they're just on the cusp of needing a bigger space anyhow.

Big cardboard boxes can be cut up and taped together to make a bigger space. Other folks use things like a dog playpen, kiddie pool, etc. to serve as a bigger brooder. Just remember to make a cover for the new brooder, if it doesn't already come with one.

If the chicks were fine with their old feeder I see no reason to change it. I've gone as low tech as a small paper plate and a planter saucer for food (the chickens really don't care). Elevate the food and water on a couple of bricks and that will help a little bit to keep the bedding out.

 

[ColoradoPip]

If you put the waterer up on something, like on a small piece of a 2x6 to raise it up, that will help but a hanging waterer is better.

The sooner you can give them more space the better, of course!