Is this hay or straw?

[Bear4boo]

We wanted to get a some straw bales to help provide warmth in the run this winter. The farmer we got these from said they are straw bales but they look like hay to us. Is it ok to use hay?

 

[Isabella6Storm4]

I use hay. Its perfictly fine. I think its just more pricy than straw.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Straw is usually oat straw. It can be made from other grain plants like wheat, rye, or even cornstalks. This doesn't look like oat straw. We use hay all the time here. It adds forage.

 

[TXchickmum]

That looks like hay. I only use coastal hay in the run and nest boxes. It doesn't get nasty and mildew like straw. My chickens eat the seed heads on the hay.

 

[nuthatched]

It's good either way. Why does hay provide warmth?

 

[Bear4boo]

It's good either way. Why does hay provide warmth?

We were told that straw is a good insulator and hay is not.

 

[nuthatched]

We were told that straw is a good insulator and hay is not.

Both work just as well as the other.
Insulating how?

 

[3KillerBs]

There are different kinds of straw.

Mostly we get wheat straw, which is fairly coarse, since this is a wheat-growing area, but sometimes we end up with a different, finer sort of straw that I've wondered what grain it came from -- maybe rice.

Any dry organic material will serve well as bedding in the coop and litter in the run.

 

[aart]

Straw might be more insulation with hollow stalks.
Hay might be more apt to mold.
Might.....ya never know.

 

[mowin]

True straw is hollow, like, well a straw. Hay isn't. Straw traps air and is better at insulating. No different than a deers hair in the winter which is hollow to insulate, compared to solid hair in the summer to let excess heat escape.