Bedding - Pro’s & Cons

[aart]

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

Oh, Well, Yeah....
....but if you pull the handfuls out where you need them it doesn't matter
I carry the bag into the coop before dispensing.

 

[Mosey2003]

Oh, Well, Yeah....
....but if you pull the handfuls out where you need them it doesn't matter
I carry the bag into the coop before dispensing.

Why would I do something the smart and easy way? Hahaha. It's usually when I just want to grab a bucket of them to replenish nests that I make a mess, I do open them inside the coop when I'm cleaning it out. My nest cover door requires one hand to hold open, so it's hard to hold the bag up too and scoop out. I keep saying I'm gonna install a chain and hook to hold it open for me, but I never do *sigh*

 

[Barry42001]

I’m not sure this is the correct place but maybe it falls into maintenance?

So I’m not looking for the “best bedding” but I was struggling with a search for pros and cons for different bedding materials. I’m mostly curious because I’d like to use anything non-toxic that becomes seasonally available. For instance the corn stalks from the garden.

Quick note before I begin I heard there was something you can treat bedding with to lesson mite infestation chances. I don’t recall the name well enough to spell, D____ Earth. Where do you find this?

So moving on these are materials I know of. Please add any missing or comments of pro/con that you know.

-Pine chips
-Corn chaff (dried chopped stalks)
-Hemp
-Straw...yes I use for nesting boxes
_*Home for mites
_*Possible crop issues
-Grass clippings
_*Posted by others but my chickens eat them
-Shreaded Paper
-Hays on floor of coop chickens pick the seeds off and scratch in it
_*more of a food
_*Home for mites
_*Possible crop issues

It's called diatomaceous earth

 

[OneAndTwoOfFour]

When I was working in manufacturing, we used DE with water in machines as a slurry to clean metal plates and panels… I used it in my pool back then too but it was long before I heard about using it with chickens or dogs... so, basically I'm saying that it is likely still effective when wet, but messy...

DE takes care of MANY internal parasite issues when fed to animals. Our cat had tapeworms earlier this year. We gave her 1 tsp food-grade DE each evening in a little scoop of canned salmon. She scarfed it down. We continued that for three weeks and she was worm-free.

Also, we put DE in our chicken feed and our eggs are clean as a whistle. Our neighbor’s eggs are covered in poop! Yuck. I will continue to use diatomaceous earth in our animals’ feed because empirical evidence proves its usefulness.

 

[sassysarah]

I use hay for my coop. Pine shavings gives me a headache and gets kicked up and leaves barespots on my coop floor. (Same thing with straw, gets kicked up by the hens.)

 

[chicken vet girl]

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.

Has anyone used wood stove pellets for bedding? This sounds like a very interesting idea.

 

[chicken vet girl]

Over the years, I have used chopped straw, pine shavings, and hay for bedding.

The long pieces of hay make it hard to clean up only part of the coop. The straw was disappointingly dusty. Whenever I use pine shavings it seemed like they "condensed" (not sure if that is a good description). I always had to add more pine shavings later.

I am considering chopping up hay bales into 3-4 inch pieces. Is their way other than using a chain saw?

 

[aart]

Has anyone used wood stove pellets for bedding? This sounds like a very interesting idea.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/search/40672870/?q=wood+stove+pellets&t=post&o=date&c[title_only]=1

Is their way other than using a chain saw?

You can rent shredder/choppers.
https://www.google.com/search?q=str...1.69i57j0l5.6447j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

[Mosey2003]

I am considering chopping up hay bales into 3-4 inch pieces. Is their way other than using a chain saw?

God, I would hate that as bedding. But if that's what you want, you can sometimes find chopped bagged hay, meant for horses. I don't know if there's a brand that comes without having some molasses added though. Otherwise, you can rent a chopper like aart said.

 

[Rein Quest]

Over the years, I have used chopped straw, pine shavings, and hay for bedding.

The long pieces of hay make it hard to clean up only part of the coop. The straw was disappointingly dusty. Whenever I use pine shavings it seemed like they "condensed" (not sure if that is a good description). I always had to add more pine shavings later.

I am considering chopping up hay bales into 3-4 inch pieces. Is their way other than using a chain saw?

If I was going to do that I’d get an old stationary belt drive hammer mill that was built to handle forage copping. I actually have that on my wish list so I can chop my dried corn stalk into bedding and do my own feed milling.

If you had dry corn stalk I’d say a wood chipper but hay/straw would likely bind that up. Though I guess some of them do leaf shredding too so maybe check with manufacturers before you try.