Are all wood chips safe for a chicken run?

[BarronVon]

What kind of wood chips would you recommend?

Aspen chips, hemp chips (If higher quality, some are WAY better than others) I'm not sure what others you can get in chip form honestly, I just use sand nowadays.

 

[3KillerBs]

if you are a hobby person, and your chickens are only living till 7-8, there's a problem.

Aging animals are always subject to the diseases of senescence.

Why would I be keeping aging chickens who don't lay productively if at all and who are naturally prone to increasing health problems regardless of their management?

Aspen chips, hemp chips (If higher quality, some are WAY better than others) I'm not sure what others you can get in chip form honestly, I just use sand nowadays.

That is, expensive bedding that may only be locally available or available in limited quantities.

If the million-dollar racehorses can live on pine the $5 chickens can live on pine.

 

[BarronVon]

Aging animals are always subject to the diseases of senescence.

Why would I be keeping aging chickens who don't lay productively if at all and who are naturally prone to increasing health problems regardless of their management?



That is, expensive bedding that may only be locally available or available in limited quantities.

If the million-dollar racehorses can live on pine the $5 chickens can live on pine.

There's so much to unpack here... I don't even know where to start.... Therefore, if you genuinely believe you in are the right, have at it, but please don't recommend pine to people. I also recommend in about a half hour, to come back to this thread, and read the science, then you'll be cooled off and out of your "I need to be right" childish additude. Please do look into the studdies, and realize just because something is against your beliefs, doesn't mean it's wrong or "scaremongering". I'm done here.

 

[Auntiejessi3]

Pine is not toxic. The people who claim that are usually trying to sell you something different.

If pine were toxic it wouldn't be used by millions of commercial operations operating on tight margins where even a fractional percentage of loss or gain can make or break the entire business.

Eastern Red Cedar gives off strong fumes that can cause significant respiratory irritation. Western Cedar is less aromatic and thus less irritating -- probably OK for use in the run.

Walnut is probably OK for the chickens but the juglone that inhibits plant growth might not compost away sufficiently to allow using the chicken compost in your garden.

Other than that, wood chips are generally safe.

I buy shredded Texas cedar mulch in a 4 cubic foot bag and add about 2 cubic ft along with pine woods chips with no ill effects. I started doing that about 8 months ago when the lady at the AG store said it does wonders in her run for keeping the flies down. So ya it probably depends on the type of cedar, but definitely agree about the pine, if it were toxic my whole flock would be dead from the shavings I put in the coop, smdh

 

[JedJackson]

The scaremongering seems to be coming from this particular article: https://www.thefeatherbrain.com/blog/toxic-chicken-coop-pine-shavings

The author seems to have an absolute loathing of pine to the point of paranoia. It is admitted that there have been zero studies about chickens and pine chips but the author goes ahead and uses other studies anyway and applies them to chickens. Seems like a storm in a teacup to me.

 

[3KillerBs]

Please do look into the studdies, and realize just because something is against your beliefs, doesn't mean it's wrong or "scaremongering". I'm done here.

I am not the one ignoring the real-world experience of millions of farmers keeping multiple species of animals while touting "studies" claiming risks that, if real, would be costing farmers billions of dollars in lost productivity.

 

[3KillerBs]

I buy shredded Texas cedar mulch in a 4 cubic foot bag and add about 2 cubic ft along with pine woods chips with no ill effects. I started doing that about 8 months ago when the lady at the AG store said it does wonders in her run for keeping the flies down. So ya it probably depends on the type of cedar, but definitely agree about the pine, if it were toxic my whole flock would be dead from the shavings I put in the coop, smdh

Your massive ventilation undoubtedly helps too in re: the cedar.

 

[Auntiejessi3]

Your massive ventilation undoubtedly helps too in re: the cedar.

That all goes in the run, not in the coop, coop only has large pine shavings, that also go out into the run during a clean out

 

[3KillerBs]

That all goes in the run, not in the coop, coop only has large pine shavings, that also go out into the run during a clean out

Even MORE massive ventilation.

IF studies were actually done on chickens I'd have to question whether the chickens were shut into little, airless boxes without the abundance of fresh air that birds should have for the entire 7 years that the anti-pine fanatic was talking about.

 

[NatJ]

pine shaving don't directly kill a chicken, but it can in other ways, by causing cancer in the lungs, impacting the digestive system and causing crop impactions, and cell damage.

look at the studies on pine shavings, the effects of it are extremely common in chickens and rodents past the age of 7 years.

If this information is accurate, pine might be a reasonable choice for people who intend to keep their chickens for 5 years or less. (But consider changing bedding if the chickens show digestive problems.) Crop impactions can happen with ANY bedding if the chickens eat too much of it.


Personally, I like dry leaves, dry grass clippings, pine needles, wood chips, and other materials that I can collect for free. I'm not picky about what kind of tree it comes from, but free sources often have a mixture rather than a large amount of any single thing. I've used pine shavings a few times, but I've mostly avoided them because of the cost (more expensive than "free.")