Back to Eden Gardening and Hugelkulture and other non-conventional garden methods

[lazy gardener]

There was a recent thread about a BYC member who used green wood chips in their run, and lost half of their flock due to toxic mold, I think it was aspergillosis???? B/C of that, I am now advocating the use of AGED chips in the coop/run. If there is insect activity in the chips, they are aged enough! Look for worms. They are your canaries in the mine. Do you have enough land that you can get the chips dumped and let them age for a year?

 

[HoopyFrood]

There was a recent thread about a BYC member who used green wood chips in their run, and lost half of their flock due to toxic mold, I think it was aspergillosis???? B/C of that, I am now advocating the use of AGED chips in the coop/run. If there is insect activity in the chips, they are aged enough! Look for worms. They are your canaries in the mine. Do you have enough land that you can get the chips dumped and let them age for a year?

I will do some reading on aspergillosis and the fungi that break down woody matter. I would get chips the same day the tree was cut down, so they would not at all be ready for insects. We mulched our whole garden in these kinds of chips (including pine and cedar) and the girls would dig through that any time we let them. They were perfectly healthy, but granted that was once or twice a day for 15 or 20 minutes at a time.

Yes, I have plenty of room to store chips. I just wanted to get the run loaded up before next winter's snow comes.

I'll see what my research turns up. No matter! If I have to put up with one more winter without them, that's what I'll do. We won't risk their health.

Do you happen to have a link for the thread about the toxic mold?

 

[lazy gardener]

I think there's a difference between letting them have ACCESS to fresh chips versus having them enclosed in a smallish run/coop with no where to go other than ON the fresh chips, which in that particular case, were loaded with mold. It was a perfect storm of events, but worthy of consideration and warning when advising folks.

 

[HoopyFrood]

Found it:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/dying-chickens.1129854/

A very sad tale. Indeed, aspergillus was the culprit. It loves carbon-heavy substrates, even starchy surfaces. So it can grow on leaves, wood chips or even feed. It sounds like the moral of that situation is green wood chips (especially with leaves) are risky. And that risk compounds with heat and humidity. Those particular chips were pear and oak.

I was going to avoid resinous softwood (e.g. pine or cedar) for the sake of the chickies' respiratory systems. But now I'm thinking I might actually seek both (they are anti-bacterial and anti-fungal), mix them with hardwood chips and then age everything together. By the time the softwoods volatiles stop offgassing, hopefully the leaves will have desicated and the chips dried out.

Sound like this will be a longer and more complicated project than I thought. Funny how every aspect of homesteading, including chickens, is like that

 

[lazy gardener]

Longer, yes. But, really not much work involved in letting a pile of chips sit around and rot for a year! The last chips I was able to get delivered (been several years since I've been so lucky) were loaded with a fungus called "dog vomit fungus". It did somewhat resemble dog puke.

 

[HoopyFrood]

That's not one I've come across

If you are in need of wood chips I can always hit up my friends and see if they know an arborist in your area. You never know...

 

[lazy gardener]

I've contacted most of the ones near me. No go. No one wants to drop chips in a private yard.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Same problem I having here

 

[CapricornFarm]

I need to find some too.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I get chips free from a couple of different tree services. I'm very clear that I don't want any poisonous-to-animals chips (like yew) and that I don't want chips from yards that use chemical fertilizer or pesticides, etc. Both of these guys are trustworthy on that end. They love to dump them off if they're working in my area as that saves them having to haul them somewhere farther away and they can get more work done that day.

I let my piles sit, as @lazy gardener mentioned, until they are filled with worms. Sometime it is a shorter time; sometimes longer. You just have to take a look now and then. Take a shovel and dig down a bit and see if you see any worms.

The first piles I used were there about 8 months, I believe. However I didn't inspect them sooner so the worms could have been there in shorter order. I'm in Northern Indiana if that makes any difference.

Also - piles need to be on the ground while aging. Now on cement, etc.