Hay: Pros and Cons?

[sandburRanch]

Delivered because you'll find a use for it . Without the equipment to handle bales that may weigh 800 - 1000 lbs. be careful where you place them on your property .

 

[Equus]

I haven't gone through all the replies. If it's repeated I'm sorry. I'd pass for a few reasons. In December before that polar vortex, we brought home square bales of hay (we grow our own for our horses and cattle). We stacked it around the outside of the coop and padded up the nesting boxes. It was lovely, good quality grass hay, stored indoors. Birds got mites (northern fowl). Didn't think about the wild birds hanging out in the hay loft which probably transferred the mites. The second reason I'd pass. If you use it to mulch into your garden, you'll likely be seeding your garden down with whatever your hay bales are made from. My FIL did that several years ago. He set a giant round bale in my MIL's veggie garden and broke it apart as needed. In the spring she had fresh timothy and brome grasses growing. She pulled those all summer long around the tomato and pepper plants. Lol.

 

[WTCH Ho Dog]

I've been reading numerous threads about having hay in or around the run, and the comments run the gamut from good to bad.

Some think hay is the best, others warn against it harboring rats, mice, mites, and disease.

Why I am asking is that a friend has access to free hay bales, the large round types. They've apparently been sitting in a field for a while, weathering.

I wouldn't have to haul them, but they'd be delivered for free to my yard. I could use them in the garden area as mulch, in the compost pile (mostly grass clippings and leaves right now) and in the chicken run. I could place them behind but not directly next to the coop, on the woods side of the yard. See inserted photo of the current state of the coop/run construction (cold and wet conditions have stalled the project) to get a better idea of my layout.

So, what are your thoughts on whether having a couple large hay bales in the backyard for garden and chicken use would be a good thing, or not?

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We feed our cattle and sheep large round bales of mixed bent grass and Timothy/orchard. They average 700++++ pounds, depending on the year. We haul them out of fields where they have sat and been rained on (it’s Oregon, it rains sometimes). IF they are properly baled, very tight, the only mold is usually, not always, surface mold IF they were properly set on their sides in the field, and not sitting upright.

That said, when we switched to our square bales, excess hay that is tossed out of the bunks or just sheds off the bales go to the chickens, both as nest box material - they lay in a hole they made in the hay stack anyway - and as bedding. Their coop doesn’t stay perfectly dry, and since I muck it out once a month or so, I haven’t seen any moldy hay in my own, personal situation. The stuff I scrape out goes into old feed bags for a few months, then onto the main compost heap.

You could just try a bit, see how it works for you.

 

[puddle_drinker]

Hay is awesome! Solved my chicken run mud problems. I get the old crusty hay rolls free from local farmers, the rolls that can't be sold for feeding livestock. One roll is good for a 50'x50' outdoor chicken run and lasts for months, even with an average of 40" of rain a year. I'll put one pile in each quadrant of the run and let the chickens spread it out and scratch it down to almost nothing. Worms come up to eat the hay which give the chickens extra protein. The chickens will actually eat the hay as well. The carbon in the hay binds with the nitrogen in the chicken poop which mitigates smell.

 

[Djeje]

I have lined my girls indoor roosting area with fresh flakes from my horses feed hay when the weather got super cold..it worked ...but by spring I had quite a job removing it all as it started getting matted and smelly

I do throw some loose fresh hay inside the coop when they cant go out..they just love it..

Like I said this is clean timothy hay that I feed my horses..I would definitely not use moldy hay and I dont use it as bedding either..

 

[puddle_drinker]

Hay is awesome! Solved my chicken run mud problems. I get the old crusty hay rolls free from local farmers, the rolls that can't be sold for feeding livestock. One roll is good for a 50'x50' outdoor chicken run and lasts for months, even with an average of 40" of rain a year. I'll put one pile in each quadrant of the run and let the chickens spread it out and scratch it down to almost nothing. Worms come up to eat the hay which give the chickens extra protein. The chickens will actually eat the hay as well. The carbon in the hay binds with the nitrogen in the chicken poop which mitigates smell.

I should probably add that I use wood chips and wood shavings inside my coops. I've found that wood chips and shavings last longer and are a little less dusty than hay. I clean out the coop about once a year.

I'm not too concerned about mold/fungi. In my humble opinion, in a chicken run open to the sun, scratching by the chickens, nitrate overload from lots of chicken droppings, along with continual solarization, makes hay in the run a hostile environment for fungi.

 

[Yolkahontis]

I have used hay in my nesting boxes for 3 years now ( it was also free) yaaaa, without any issue. Got mites once and treated girls and they have never returned. I also made the mistake of using it in the run. I was new to chickens and would provide fresh hay once a month all winter so they were not walking around on their own droppings. As I live in a cold weather climate they had to be kept confined to the run for the winter where they were more protected from the freezing cold. Anyways After two winters I moved the entire set up into a better location and when we tore out the old area there were hundreds of mice living in the hay on the ground. Now we know where all the mice in our cars were coming from. The mice destroyed the seats and insulation in the interior of the car and would die in the car as well and smell to high heaven. I still use hay in the nesting boxes, but never again will I put it the run floor. Draws the rodents and gives them housing and food. No good.

 

[meowloud]

My experience with hay: I had used it a couple of years as a filler and to enrich their run (girls loved to scratch around in it), until I noticed mold really grew quite easily in it. The hollow tubes were black with mold and being stepped on! No telling how many spores were being released and chickens’ breathing and nasal tracts are very sensitive!
The ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’ was when one of my fat, lavender Orpingtons jumped down from a catwalk I made for them and impaled her foot with a piece of the hay!! NOPE!

 

[ChicFil- A]

Yep, that could be the catch in the arrangement.

Good Day fellow BYC enthusiast, i’ve been keeping chickens for about 7 years total, until then I had very little experience. I love my chickens and I want them to be comfortable and love their coop. That said and me not knowing i’ve used everything there is to offer in bedding, pine needles, pine shavings, hay pellets, hay,sand and mulch, My favorite is straw. It’s clean, drys quickly is bio degradable, keeps dust down, keeps little muddy feet clean,
it’s odorless and compostes! I’ll settle with hay straw.

 

[SourRoses]

We use hay for the nest boxes after years of trying other substrates (straw, shavings, etc.).
I like that with hay the strands are long so it forms and holds a nest better. It's soft which seems to make the hens happier because they completely quit digging around in nests making messes.
Because hay does mold easier, we change it often, which has the plus of nice clean eggs.

There are all different kinds of hay, depending on the species of grass the properties are different...
Coastal is super fine, round, and has a glossy layer on it like straw does which helps keep it from deteriorating.
Orchard is soft, flat, and fine, but porous. Those are my top 2 choices for nests.
Timothy is my first choice for feeding horses, but a bit too dense (wide blades) for making nests.
Alfalfa stems are too tough, but we give them a flake in the yard now and then to dig through and have fun eating (protein, calcium). I rake the leftover stems away.

I can't use it as a substrate in my humid climate, but I can see the right hay working well in dryer areas.