Alternatives to wood shavings?

[willy546]

Try rice hulls for bedding. They do stick to your feet but easy to brush off. Also they help keep the runs nice, easy to rake and dispose of. Keeps things from being muddy in the winter time. I've had 12 years of experience using shavings that soak up water and stay we, seems they take forever to dry out,if ever. I was happy to find rice hulls, they dry out fast with a bit of sun and your birds will love playing in them.

 

[brahmapapa]

probably stall dry wood pellets or pellet stove wood pellets, because you put them down on the floor of the run whole and as moisture gets on them the turn to sawdust and still keep a good absorbs rate. that is what I use on the floor of my coop and only have to change it out 2 times a year. this is in a 10 foot x 10 foot floor space coop with 15 chickens. it stays nice clean and warm. the chickens love to dust bathe in it and also scratch around in it when I toss some scratch in.

i am afraid my chickens would eat them, they look so much like layer pellets.

 

[iluvsedward]

hahaha I just switched to sand!
Thanks threadstarter, I love it

 

[Of Three Oaks]

I use prairie hay, it is easy to work with a pitch fork, and the chickens eat it some times! It does let poop go through it easy, so a thick layering is needed if you want to keep the poop off the coop floor.

 

[Dawna]

I like the idea of using sand in the coop, but using it in the nest boxes? Wouldn't that encourage hens to lay outside in any sandy hole they find?

 

[joeyfender]

I don't know if this will work in a coop, but in my brooder I use this organic bedding thats almost like cotton but is mostly used for chickens.

 

[Gifa]

I am considering sand as a summer only bedding because it might offer a cooler alternative... Since I am not heating in the winter, sand would be much much colder than the wood pellet sawdust. In fact, the stall dry, which is similar to sand was considerably colder than the wood pellets this winter... and as I've stated before, my girls wanted nothing to do with it.

 

[bruceha2000]

raise the water source up onto blocks it helps so they don't scratch all the pellets into the water.

Which is true of shavings as well. The girls get shavings in the oyster shell container even though it is 6" above the shavings. Not a problem with the water though, I have nipples in a pipe.

Bruce

 

[iluvsedward]

I like the idea of using sand in the coop, but using it in the nest boxes? Wouldn't that encourage hens to lay outside in any sandy hole they find?

I left straw in my nestboxes and they still lay in them.

 

[heybarb]

I left straw in my nestboxes and they still lay in them.

I have sand (mixed with a sprinkling of DE) on the coop floor and straw & shavings in the nest boxes. It works fine, although sometimes in their excitement the girls will push some straw out onto the sand. It scoops as easily as the poop!