Bedding for the Coop?

[agirly4chicks]

I have purchased pine shavings from PetSmart for the brooder and I got to thinking that it is going to be expensive to cover the coops floor (8x10) so...I need your expert advise and personal preference opinions.


What are your suggestions? What are you using? Does it keep the smell
down? Is it pricy? How often do you change it out?

Thanks Everyone,
Angie

 

[tpotter01]

I got to Tractor Supply and buy big bags of horse bedding. They are like $5 a bag. My coop is only 8x4 but I can get at least 8 - 10 coverings of that from one bag of the shavings.

 

[sugarbush]

Here is a secret. Find a local cabinet maker and ask if you can have some shavings from his planer.

 

[geareduplyn]

Shavings are the 2nd worst bedding you can use, straw being the first. The Pine Pellets sold by TSC for horse bedding are the best floor covering ever, both for adult birds and especially for brooder substrate.

 

[sugarbush]

And yet prior to the last 10 years or so straw and shavings was all that was available for bedding....millions of livestock bedded and counting....

I would think pelleted product would be mistaken for feed and eaten. A horse can smell that it is not feed.....I chicken cannot.

 

[geareduplyn]

Quote:
I feed scratch on top of this bedding. It is never consumed. Spilled layer pellets are picked from it also. Baby chicks never eat it as they do shavings and get stopped up and die. I personally have been using pellets in my Pigeon lofts, and my poultry houses for over 25 years. The nice thing about the pellets is that they instantly absorb all the moisture in the droppings and there is never any clumps.

 

[patandchickens]

Shavings work fine; cheapest way of getting good bedding-quality shavings (i.e. fairly dust-free and consistant in size) is at the feed store. I pay about $4-5 for a bale (it expands *considerably* when opened -- it would only take a couple, maximum, to bed an 8x10 coop (depending on how deep you want the bedding).

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Blueroo63]

my coops are getting muddy I've been thinking of putting hay down in the floor has anyone ever done this ,and does it work out

 

[waynesgarden]

Quote:
Absolutely nothing wrong with pine shavings. Use TSC's pine pellets if you can get them cheaper than shavings but I don't think it's likely.

Straw works though it's harder to muck out the coop and straw is ridiculously expensive here in Maine.

Worst and best are subjective terms only. Use what is best for you. What's best for me are the pine shavings I get fro free from tha planer at work, as sugarbush suggested.


Wayne

 

[Wynette]

I use pelleted bedding for my horses and donkeys, and wouldn't use anything else. I tried pelleted bedding for my chickens and hated it. It's MUCH harder to scoop out, and my girls like the soft, fluffy shavings better, so that's what I use. Personal preference.