bedding material for free?

Hi everyone,

We are preparing for chicks for the first time... for their coop we have a garden shed that's very well built, almost more like a house (without a finished ceiling) than a shed. It has concrete block walls, a shingled roof and concrete slab floor with slight sloping and drainage. There's a fan and lights and plumbing. There's a door to an outer screened porch. We plan to cover the screens with 1/2-inch hardware cloth with minimal ugliness (we hope) to stop the raccoons.

The question is- What can we use for bedding that is free? We could buy the shavings etc, but why do it when we have tons of oak leaves, pine straw and grass clippings? We have 1.5 acres of heavy woods. My concern with this idea is that we'd be bringing in other stuff inadvertently... maybe fleas, ticks, bacteria, etc. Then again, chickens forage in this stuff all the time. Is this a good idea or not?

Thank you for listening!

 

<bump> Anyone else want to add their experiences? I really just need to know if I'm likely to be causing problems by using pine straw/leaves from our own yard.