Bedding - Pro’s & Cons

[Rein Quest]

Do your chickens sleep on the floor, or do they sleep on roost bars?
If they do sleep on roost bars why do you want to put bedding on the floor?

Your question makes no sense.

 

[Rein Quest]

I hadn’t considered rice hulls. Sounds like it would work great but I think it’s hard to come by here. Sawdust and wood chips are most common outside of standard grain straw.

 

[Mosey2003]

For awhile my local farm store was stocking bags of ground corn cob bedding, I really liked that in the coop. It stuck to the poop fine and it was really light to carry. And every bag would always have a kernel or three of whole corn in it, and they would have a BLAST going through it every time I did a full change, it sounded like a stampede in there

But, I'm back to pine shavings now. They're fine, but I don't like how they're packaged, ie impossible not to make a mess if you don't use the whole bag at once.

 

[Henrik Petersson]

I like the good ol' classic wood shavings. You can very easily spot the poop in it if you want to spot clean.

Sand seems awesome, but it must be heavy to handle in large amounts. Not that I mind that though, I love the free workout I occasionally get from the chicken hobby and a few wheelbarrows worth of sand might just do wonders for my pecs and delts.

Also, I dream of one day making a coop with dirt floor. I.e. no floor at all, just the ground where the coop happens to be built. The chooks are bound to love that, and I think it would hold temperature well (of course I would take precautions from predators digging in).

I personally don't believe in diatomaceous earth, I believe it's a hazard to the respiratory system, mine and the birds'. But I respect that others have a different opinion.

 

[aart]

But, I'm back to pine shavings now. They're fine, but I don't like how they're packaged, ie impossible not to make a mess if you don't use the whole bag at once.

Huh? I just cut one end like this... \_/...pull out a handful at a time, kinda hard to get it loose tho it's packed so tight.

 

[llombardo]

Flax for duck house and coop. It's a fantastic product.

 

[Rein Quest]

When you get the presses bales of wood chips I agree they can be messy. Not sure about saw dust. I have to bust the chips apart with a garden fork.

 

[paneubert]

Has anyone mentioned wood stove pellets/horse stall pellets yet? I grabbed about 250 pounds of them from Lowes. Plan to experiment with them in the Spring. Seems that they are basically the same as using sawdust, but in a much denser and easier to store form. I plan to "expand" them back into sawdust with a little water, but only in the quantities needed at any one time. At around $5 per 40 pound bag (for stove pellets), the price is hard to beat. Even cheaper if you buy them by the pallet. I assume the horse bedding pellets are more expensive, just like every other product that is labeled for a speciality/pet/specific animal.

 

[Pak Rat]

I agree with Mosey that the ground corn cob bedding is very absorbent and light, and that's probably what I'd be using if it were readily available in my area. However I can only find it in small packages (for caged birds and cat litter boxes) and it's spendy!(I still like using it in my cat box).
Rice hulls are something I actually just learned about on this thread, even my poultry books don't mention it. Sounds like geographical location is a big factor when deciding on a bedding material. Availability and price fluctuate a lot depending on what industries are close to you.
It gets me thinking, has anyone ever used or heard of paper pulp as a bedding material? I know it's sometimes used for small pets like rodents, or large livestock like cattle. I have a couple paper pulp/textile mills nearby, one is just a few blocks away, and it makes me wonder...

 

[Mosey2003]

Huh? I just cut one end like this... \_/...pull out a handful at a time, kinda hard to get it loose tho it's packed so tight.

I know, but it never fails when I try to pull a handful out they just go everywhere