woodworking shavings for bedding?

Date sort Score sort
Jmay402

Jmay402

Chirping
7 Years
Mar 30, 2015
57
7
99
I do some hobby woodworking pretty frequently. I have a thickness planer that I use quite a bit. It produces lots of shavings. Has anybody ever used these shavings for the coop bedding? I have been buying the pine shavings in the bag from Walmart. After this night's planing, I ended up filling one of those old bags. The shavings are smaller than what I buy, but I'm curious if it would matter? I would love to save the money on bedding if this will work.
 
I've thought the same thing when I plane wood. I would suspect it should work fine as long as it wasn't the kind of wood that is toxic/causes respiratory issues. Is that cedar?
 
Yes. I've read not to ever use cedar, because it can be toxic to the chicks. All I ran through the planer last night was pine though. Everybody always says use pine for the bedding for some reason.
 
aromatic cedar has oils that can create respiratory distress in humans and chickens, that is why it is not used for bedding.

Pine contains none of the volatile oils that cedars do, so it is safe. That combined with all the pine wood shavings that are made by the lumber industry and packaged and sold for bedding is why so many people recommend this product for bedding.

I like to use straw because I can get it cheep and I use it for many other things as well as for deep litter base material.

I would use any workshop shavings that are not from volatile oil containing woods. You don't even need to break them up, the chickens will do that part of it for you as they scratch.
 
Smaller, thinner shavings could compact more easily.....
....but using them to mix with the purchased shavings would be useful and stretch your purchased shaving pennies.
Give it a try, if you see problem change how you use/mix them.
 
Last edited:
aart said:
Smaller, thinner shavings could compact more easily.....
....but using them to mix with the purchased shavings would be useful and stretch your purchased shaving pennies.
Give it a try, if you see problem change how you use/mix them.
Click to expand...


This was the same question i had! I bought a bag of course shavings for $6, then i found someone giving away 55gallon bags of wood working shavings for free! But once i saw them i was afraid to use them because they are much finer. I had the same thought that if i combined the two, it could work and stretch out the cost a bit! I will give it a go and see.
 
The finer shavings caused more dust when I used them, so I switched to pine flakes. Combining the 2 should work!
1f44d.png
 
Jmay402 said:
I I have been buying the pine shavings in the bag from Walmart. ... I would love to save the money on bedding if this will work.
Click to expand...


Avoid the Walmart shavings and get them at a feed supply store if possible, it will cut your cost in half instantly...

Shavings from a planer should be fine as long as you avoid the 'bad' woods like cedar...

Beyond that a lot of people have strong opinions on bedding...

I switched over to the deep litter method last fall, and have never looked back... I did about a 50/50 mix of pine shavings and straw, the straw was there to save cost and provide bulk... It's been almost a year now, and all I have done is fluffed it up a few times... A huge savings over scoop and remove shavings...
 
I am planning on using deep litter method also which is why i grabbed up the free material. I bought my bag of shavings at a feed supply store and was suprised by the price. I'm hoping combining the two in the right proportion will work!
 

Similar threads

F
Flock Fresh Bedding with Pine Shavings?
Replies
1
Views
864
kengboss21
kengboss21
chickenmomma1108
    • Love
    • Like
switch from pine shavings to pine pellet bedding?
2
Replies
16
Views
2K
chickenmomma1108
chickenmomma1108
Hope Hughes
    • Like
Chicken Coop bedding
2
Replies
10
Views
789
Hope Hughes
Hope Hughes
JennyLynnLuv
    • Like
How did your chickens react to pine bedding? Pellets and shavings
Replies
7
Views
2K
meowloud
meowloud
R
Can you review my coop maintenance?
2
Replies
10
Views
1K
RaesChicks
R

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom