Bales of pine shavings

[chicken995]

How many do I need to cover an 8 X 12 (that's 96 sq. ft.) coop? The bales that I get are 3 cubic feet compressed and expand to 5 cubic feet. Filling the coop for the first time. Any guesses would be appreciated.

 

[stoneeater]

5 cubic feet at 1" thick is 60 sq. ft.
@ 1/2" thick it covers 120 sq. ft.
etc......

 

[savingpurple]

my coop is 4 x 8 and my bales are 2.5 cf and it says it expands to 8.0 cf. I use all of it when I do the coop. I have to pad it up on one end because I have 2 ladies that refuse to use the ladder. They are so scared to get down, they fly and it's not far enough for a smooth landing. So I really have it deeper at that end. Need to work on training them on my vacation to use the ladder? Hope I can do that??

 

[bryan99705]

I would try 1 bale and see how it goes (it will give you about a 3" cover of litter), you may not like having to clean that mess up plus buying a bale of chips every time you clean the coop. It gets to be expensive maintainance and then you have to dispose of them too

 

[patandchickens]

It depends so much on how deep you want your bedding.

I find that if I'm bedding a new pen (i.e. it was bare floor) then I use about half a bale for a 4x6 pen. But I bed deepish to start with, so YMMV.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[duckinnut]

I would guess about 2 bales,my coop is 8x8 and use 11/2 bales of the same size and add as needed. In the winter I go heavier because my coop is raised and like it a little deeper to fend off the cold .

 

[chicken995]

Quote:
I'm not too worried about that. I'll be implementing the deep litter method, and moving old bedding to the compost pile.

 

[moetrout]

I have a 6' x 8' coup and use 1.5 bales for the first filling.

 

[jimz1]

my coop is 10x12 and I used 1 bag. It covered just fine.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

Id' put at least 2 bales (if not 3).

You can't have "too much"