what do I put on the coop floor?

Quote:
the reason you dont put pine shavings directly on the garden is they leach nitrogen out of the soil making the soil poor for growing plants...but do compost it with the chicken poop and you will have black gold to put on the garden after a year...

That I don't know. I think you can find it at feed stores, online, and also in some health food places... Hopefully someone who uses it will come along soon!

Quote:
We get ours from fellow BYC'er Spatcher. I've never found it at the feed store, but they have great pricing and fast shipping.

Quote:
We get ours from fellow BYC'er Spatcher. I've never found it at the feed store, but they have great pricing and fast shipping.

Spatcher charges how much for what size bag and what is the shipping cost?

I'm a landscaper and have used shavings of all types on my yard for years! We have been going through about 100 yards per year. Pine, cedar, doesn't matter, it's all good. I do not compost them first, you just want to make sure and not till the shavings into the soil without adding nitrogen in sufficient quantity to help offset the high carbon content. If they are just on top, there is no problem. I also do not bother to compost rabbit or chicken poo, you would have to heap a lot, right on top of the rootball, to damage a plant. I would not put any poo directly on top of a lawn, though. The chips, with or without poo, break down eventually into an excellent soil amendment, and are the BEST for weed control! (thick layer). I'll try and find a pic.

I've also been using wood chips in the garden as mulch for over thirty years and currently use wood shavings that I get at our factory and have not had the "nitrogen robbing" problems a lot of people write about but seldom document. Note I said I used them as mulch (on top of the soil) where surface area in contact with soil and the soil microbes is limited.

I also use tons of wood chips in the composting process and they are an ideal carbon source when mixed with an adequate nitrogen source such as the 5 gallons of coffee grounds I bring home from a local shop every day, grass clippings collected in the summer and the occasional load of manure. Properly composted, they offer none of the worries that some have posed. This compost gets mixed well into the top few inches of garden soil and offers nothing but benefits.

A couple of weeks ago, I cleaned out the coop, removing about several contractor sized wheelbarrows full of fine pine shavings mixed with a goodly amount of chicken poop. I added enough water evenly moisten the pile and within twenty four hours, it had already heated up to 145 degrees and was off to a good start in its decompostion. I will be using that compost in the spring.

That wood takes some time to decompose is true but depends on the moisture and nitrogen content. That it is a bad ingredient because "doesn't really add anything in nutrive value to the soil when it finally does" is simply wrong in my opinion. As any gardener will tell you, adding nutrients to the soil is only one of the benefits of adding compost to your soil. Another is to add the necessary fiberous organic matter that helps build soil texture and hold and regulate moisture. Decomposed wood chips or shavings is excellent for this purpose.

I believe the idea that wood shavings will "rob" nitrogen from the soil is only partly true. Wood chips actually only "borrow" nitrogen. Microbes native to the soil will use available soil nitrogen to aid in the decomposition of fresh organic matter mixed into the soil, be it wood chips, straw, hay, cardboard, newspaper, etc. Upon completion, the nitrogen is again available for your plants. Wood that has largely decomposed (composted) does not even "borrow" any significant amount of nitrogen.

Lastly, that pine shavings can poison the soil in a manner similar to pouring Pine-sol on the garden is something that I would, at the most, consider only as an extreme hypothetical possibility until someone posts actual scientific data indicating the methodology and concentrations of the chemicals. (Please also post the source of the study.) Poisoning my soil with pine shavings is very near the bottom of my worry list, just below getting hit by meteorites.

If you use pine shavings as litter, compost it well before mixing into the top few inches of your garden soil and you will have absolutely nothing to worry about except what to do with all the veggies.

Wayne

[edited for spelling]

We are in SW Washington & love the pine inside the coop too. We lay it on thick & cozy. It keeps the odor down & we are adding herbs too to keep the flys & bugs away

Priceless.