Left over pine shaving

I'm not able to compost right now...

What can I do with the pine shaving from the coop bedding? Right now they are just making a large pile in my wood line? I'm thinking about transitioning to sand as it gets warmer. I live in the southeast and the heat / humidity can get pretty bad.

I just toss mine into the run to build up organic matter. Of course, I compost some of mine, too.

What is in your run now?

Freshly built. It's just grass right now.

josher57 said:

I'm not able to compost right now...

What can I do with the pine shaving from the coop bedding? Right now they are just making a large pile in my wood line? I'm thinking about transitioning to sand as it gets warmer. I live in the southeast and the heat / humidity can get pretty bad. 

Click to expand...

Each spring I put all my old bedding from the coop in the garden. Then I turn the chickens loose....after a few days they will have incorporated all the material. Then after a few weeks, I plant....my garden has never looked better since I started following this protocol each year.

Rock Home Isle said:

Each spring I put all my old bedding from the coop in the garden. Then I turn the chickens loose....after a few days they will have incorporated all the material. Then after a few weeks, I plant....my garden has never looked better since I started following this protocol each year.

Click to expand...

First timer here...is that not a crap ton of poop? Pun intended. They crap all the time and it's in all the bedding. I feel like it's not good for them to stay in it. I let them out during the day. I've had them 4 weeks and already changed out the bedding twice. Is that too much? All I do is wipe my kids butts, pick up dog poop, clean chicken crap and take care of my own.

Sooooo much pooooo

I'm having a similar experience. Have had mine about 4 weeks and have cleaned it out no less than 4 times. I'm starting to make myself add as I intend to do deep litter in the big coop. I have been debating on sand...I'll need to make my mind up soon.

And yes - they poop A LOT! And the bigger they get, the bigger the poop. Lol

Anxious to hear what others have to say.

josher57 said:

First timer here...is that not a crap ton of poop? Pun intended. They crap all the time and it's in all the bedding. I feel like it's not good for them to stay in it. I let them out during the day. I've had them 4 weeks and already changed out the bedding twice. Is that too much? All I do is wipe my kids butts, pick up dog poop, clean chicken crap and take care of my own.

Sooooo much pooooo

Click to expand...

It's amazing how much manure something so small can produce.

I use a deep bedding system in my coop, I try tu turn it at least once a month or so. But it still piles. I clean the coop twice a year and put down about 6 to 8 inches of wood shavings to start. I'll add more as the year progresses.

But putting it all in the garden has been a great solution for me. After cleaning out the coop I just leave the garden gate open for a week or so and blame, they do all the work. Honestly, I have not tilled my garden for several years now, the chickens do all the work in the spring and again in my fall after harvest.

Snapped this with my cell phone.



The soil is dark and rich. You can see areas where they were in working the ground even today.

Funny how the garden is one of their favorite places in the yards, like little kids and sandboxes.



And...of course....every time I head out to the yard to do anything, the local welcoming committee arrives.

angnic22 said:

I'm having a similar experience. Have had mine about 4 weeks and have cleaned it out no less than 4 times. I'm starting to make myself add as I intend to do deep litter in the big coop. I have been debating on sand...I'll need to make my mind up soon.

And yes - they poop A LOT! And the bigger they get, the bigger the poop. Lol

Anxious to hear what others have to say.

Click to expand...

How many hens do you have and how big is the coop, and how deep is your litter? Yesterday was my 4 week mark with my first 9 hens. I started off with a couple inches of pine shavings then twice I have added a trash bag of dried grass and leaves from my yard. I have done nothing else, there is no smell, no large areas of manure build up, etc. They love digging through the leaves and have them chopped up and keep everything turned under. I was concerned because the first couple of weeks they were in the coop 75% of the time, still a little timid. Now they are out more but our weather still is not perfect so they are spending a lot of time in the coop.

We have a 8' x 16' covered run and 6 chickens. When we built, right away we added grass clippings and straw knowing the grass would turn to mud quickly. *this was spring 2015* As time passed we continued to add grass clippings, straw, landscaping debris, hay and in the fall, leaves and pine needles. The run stays pretty dry but just damp enough from rain or snow blowing in to allow everything to decompose. There's about 4-6" of Deep Litter in the run. The poo drops to the ground below. There is no mess, no odor, no flies. We did no cleaning through out the year.



Jump ahead to *spring 2016*... Time to clean out. We got 3 1/2 wagon loads of beautiful compost to till into our vegetable garden.





We threw in some hay, straw and garden debris from weeding to start the process again, just waiting to start cutting grass to add that. Come fall, the leaves and pine needles will be added. It's so easy to maintain, the chickens love pecking for bugs, seeds & worms. And, we get beautiful compost for the garden.

Edited to clarify... This is our run, in the coop we have pine shavings and a poopboard under the roost filled with PDZ. The poopboard gets sifted every day or 2 and thrown on the compost pile. The pine shavings are changed out twice a year.