Alternatives to wood shavings?

[willy546]

Thanks for the tip, I now shred the junk mail to use as bedding. Keep the junk mail coming it's great.

 

[backyardbirds]

Have you used cedar chips? It dries quickly and also works to keep many bugs away too. Since we live in the hot south, my coop is more open and shredded paper collects too much moisture in the open areas. I use shredded paper only in the laying boxes.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Have you used cedar chips? It dries quickly and also works to keep many bugs away too. Since we live in the hot south, my coop is more open and shredded paper collects too much moisture in the open areas. I use shredded paper only in the laying boxes.

The only place I have ever used cedar shavings is in the nest boxes to deter bugs, as cedar is considered too aromatic for chickens. (If you are noticing a strong cedar smell in your coop, I'd switch to pine shavings.)

I use sand on the floor of my coops due to wet coops all winter from fog.

It is interesting to hear what others do.

 

[rje ma]

I have always used sand and it works great. It is super easy to keep clean too. Takes about two minutes a day with a poop scoop. no smell.

 

[backyardbirds]

ChickensAreSweet, great name, by the way. Obviously, our different parts of the country call for different solutions. Since my coop needs to be open aired most of the year I don't have problems with the cedar smell building up. I have sand on the outside where they can take dust baths and grind their beaks, but we would have horrible trouble with chiggers and mites if it was in the coop.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

ChickensAreSweet, great name, by the way. Obviously, our different parts of the country call for different solutions. Since my coop needs to be open aired most of the year I don't have problems with the cedar smell building up. I have sand on the outside where they can take dust baths and grind their beaks, but we would have horrible trouble with chiggers and mites if it was in the coop.

Very good to hear!

Thanks for the compliment!

 

[Wendee]

I use shredded junk mail in my boxes. When I change the shreds it goes into my compost pile. The bottom of the coop I use sand and DE. Which I change 4 times a year. This also goes into my garden or compost.

 

[EggsPatInOntario]

We use sand inside the coop and haven't had any trouble with it tracking around much. I mix in a little DE and scoop the poop once every 2 weeks or so. Very simple to keep clean & dry.

We like to compost our poop, does it compost ok?

 

[aart]

We use sand inside the coop and haven't had any trouble with it tracking around much. I mix in a little DE and scoop the poop once every 2 weeks or so. Very simple to keep clean & dry.

We like to compost our poop, does it compost ok?

Chicken poop will compost OK with lots of carbon added and proper management...a little sand is OK too,
but I would not put DE into a compost(or use it for much of anything else).