I love all the details you included! I want to say that I have been using horse bedding pellets in my chicken shed for a while now and I love them. When I first got my chickens I also used the regular pine shavings and hated them for the same reasons you did, especially the poopy feet. So then I switched to sand. It has a lot of good properties as bedding. It absorbs the moisture quickly and doesn't stick to their feet, and it can be scooped like kitty litter. I really liked it but it is dusty and you have to eventually remove the sand and put it somewhere. That's when I decided to try the bedding pellets. Initially I used the whole pellets but they shifted around a lot because the floor is covered with sheet flooring, and I found them a bit hard to walk on. So I sprayed them down with water and they expanded into very fine shavings. I have been really happy using it this way. It has all the same properties as the whole pellets, it absorbs and dries out fast, no poopy feet, and no odor. Plus it is fine enough that I can sift it with a scooper and it doesn't shift around as much, unlike regular shavings. Scooping allows for removal of smaller bits of poop. I have actually used this batch of bedding for about six months and am getting ready to clean out the shed and replace it. I should note that I also added some Sweet PDZ initially. I used to use 100 % Sweet PDZ in my poop boards under their roosts, but I switched to using the expanded pellet bedding and it works great. I scoop the poop boards daily. I found that I can use a piece of 1/4" hardware cloth instead of a kitty scoop and it sifts through a larger amount faster. There isn't much poop on the floor so I just pick up the fresh blobs with a pooper scooper and small rake. Your detailed description has inspired me to give the whole pellets another try. It seems like being able to clean up with a bedding fork might save time and it sounds like it works well. Thanks for all the info and the links!
