Alternatives to wood shavings?

[pollitaroja]

i use pine shavings i buy at Shells feed store.Never have problems I have 14 hens. The only 2 things that stuck to my shoes is poopoo and mud lolol

 

[SD Bird Lady]

I don't have any alternatives but wanted to caution about straw. We had a dog who suddenly developed a horrible rash and the vet said it was due to the straw and the high amounts of pesticide residue that is left on it. I dont know if it would affect the chickens or not since they most of the time roost but just wanted to put that out there.

 

[Muffin14143]

Oh, l forgot to mention a very important detail. Many of you may not have the problem of wood shavings sticking to your clothes, but my coop is raised up from the ground so the chickens are at shoulder level with me. When I reach in to pick one up, the wood shavings stick to me. Here is a picture of the coop . This is eye level for me.

 

[TwoCrows]

I was using grass hay, which stays relatively dry and is soft in the nest boxes. I recently switched to sand, wash/arroyo sand, and boy, am I hooked! Even put sand in the nest boxes. The chickens love it! It has natural stones in it for the gizzards, it is very dry, great for their foot pads, there is absolutely no odor in the coop or run, and the chickens love to bathe in it. I highly recommend it and I will never go back to shavings ever again.

 

[TheCrazyClucker]

I use prairie hay. Cleaning it up is much easier.

 

[Gifa]

I use wood stove pellets. They're $4.50 a bag and they're not taxed in Missouri. I use 3 bags.

I first break them down with a little water, so that they'll fall through a 1/4" hardware cloth mesh and be easier to clean. I make sure that they are dry before I change out the bedding.


This is my cleanup chore from start to finish...

First I open the door in the morning, and hook their coop feeder up and out of the way.
You can see the line of poop directly under their roost.


These are my tools. A screen, a deep dustpan on a PVC handle, and the scraper to a dog poop scraper kit.


The poop just "floats" on the bedding. If you get out there before 10am the girls haven't had a chance to walk through it and churn it all under... so you can just use the scraper to fill the dustbin, getting some of the bedding is fine.


Then after I've got it all in the screen, I give it a shake. The good bedding falls through, the poop doesn't. After I've got it all separated, I set the screen and poop outside the coop.


Next, I give all the bedding a good churn with the scraper to make sure it all stays good and loose and dry. Any missed poops magically come to the top, I pick those out with the scraper and drop them into the screen. This photo was taken I wanna say in December. It looks almost exactly like this today... maybe just slightly less deep what with daily cleanings since Halloween.


Once I smooth it up, I bring the coop feeder back down where it usually is and close the door. Then I carry the poop to the compost bin. This whole process takes less than 10 minutes.

This photo was taken at the end of October right after I changed out the bedding. All the old bedding goes in the compost bin when I change it out. Which is only two or three times a year.


That's a pan of Stall Dry... My girls never ever ever use it to dust bathe in... so... come end of March, when I change out the bedding again, I'm just going to take it outta there and use 4 bags of pellets.

 

[dink74]

I love my chickens, and find them very easy to care for, but there is one thing about them that drives me and my family CRAZY. Wood shavings. They stick to everything and are constantly getting tracked inside the house. A lot of my clothes are covered in them, just from going out to change the water. Is there any other kind of bedding people use and like? We vacuum all the time, but wood shavings are still getting tracked in. Hay is not an option, I'm allergic. Any ideas?

I would use hardwood mulch. It creates its own warmth in the winter and helps to compost the droppings so less cleanup.

Dink

 

[SD Bird Lady]

I am currently using DLM (with wood shavings / hay). It works great no smell - very little work. However my perfectionist side is jealous of all the clean coops I see on here. My busy mom side says it's not worth it, kind of like picking up toys while the kids are playing with them haha Time will tell which side wins I guess.

 

[cassyopia]

I use wood pellet fuel(one bag of wood pellets lasts all winter) it doesn't blow around the pellets stay put in the coop and as they absorb moisture they expand into saw dust which composts faster. they are easy to stir and virtually no dust.

 

[salt and pepper]

I use plain ole' straw. Works great!