Bedding

[jonalisa]

I use sand in both coop and run. I use Sweet PDZ on the poop board. There is no scraping, no mess. There is ZERO smell in both coop and run.
With sand, I find they aren't stepping in poop and getting it all over the place. Food scraps don't get mixed into it. And there is no moisture, so it doesn't cake or get hard. Every once in a while I mix in DE or Sweet PDZ. I haven't had to replace it or add to it.
I have 9 chickens, all cold hardy breeds, and I spend all the time I can with them. It doesn't bother me to scoop the poop board for all of 1 minute. The poop board basically keeps the majority of the poop in one place and it only gets cleaned once a day. I like that it always looks clean and cleans up quick. It's been in the 20's a couple of times and the chickens do not seem phased by it. If I see signs that they are cold, I will insulate the coop, keep the ventilation but would not add heat. I think the change in temp from one area to another is worse than the cold itself.

 

[chickiegal]

RezChamp you have enlightened me on peat moss and I thank you!!! I truly had no idea but will no longer buy it use it for any reason. Thank you!

 

[RezChamp]

I use sand in both coop and run. I use Sweet PDZ on the poop board. There is no scraping, no mess. There is ZERO smell in both coop and run.
With sand, I find they aren't stepping in poop and getting it all over the place. Food scraps don't get mixed into it. And there is no moisture, so it doesn't cake or get hard. Every once in a while I mix in DE or Sweet PDZ. I haven't had to replace it or add to it.
I have 9 chickens, all cold hardy breeds, and I spend all the time I can with them. It doesn't bother me to scoop the poop board for all of 1 minute. The poop board basically keeps the majority of the poop in one place and it only gets cleaned once a day. I like that it always looks clean and cleans up quick. It's been in the 20's a couple of times and the chickens do not seem phased by it. If I see signs that they are cold, I will insulate the coop, keep the ventilation but would not add heat. I think the change in temp from one area to another is worse than the cold itself.

Oh yeah eh. Good one.
But at -50*C I need some heat. Even at -20*C I need heat. An elevated chicken coop is easier to move(I've had to do that a cpl times) and I just skirt it off with cheap lactic tarps weighted at ground level. I put a 40-60 watt bulb in a 5 gln metal pail under there and good for most of the winter. I don't like heat lamps anytime. Well actually I use them for brooding because it's easy to get ahold of. I'd like to use them heat ad thingies but haven't been able to find them up here.
So straw on a heated floor of a insulated(walls and ceiling) coop it is. I may use automobile interior heater again if it gets nasty cold.

 

[Kusanar]

Hmmmm. That makes sense and would be totally applicable in my area..........
I have a foundation Appaloosa. He can't eat alfalfa. Even Timothy and Brome Grass and Canary Reed Grass is too rich. I need to feed him lowland wild hay mixed with upland wild hay. I will give alfalfa for a treat now and then.
My g-folks said something about the healing qualities in certain parts of certain plants and trees. I know they taught me to use Tamarack, amongst others, prepared certain ways to cure certain ailments.
Actually, when I was growing up we didn't have alfalfa here. Or hotbloods. As a matter of fact we would've been extremely lucky to get a pure warmblood.
Only the rich people got warmbloods. LOL, even our "saddle horses" came out of cold bloods that had been bred by roving warmbloods that somehow managed to escape their enclosures.
All said the knowledge you've just passed on is gona be very helpful to me. Thank you.

Brome grass apparently has a TON of sugar in it and is supposed to be one of the worst hays to feed horses (Don't know from experience, never seen the stuff, it isn't popular where i live in VA), never heard of the others... but yeah, horses are supposed to get 1.5-2.5% of their body weight in fiber foods a day, so a 1,000 pound horse would get roughly 20 pounds of hay a day, if you feed something really rich like alfalfa then you cut back the number of pounds to maybe 10 pounds and get the same nutrition, but the horse doesn't have the fiber or the chewing time it needs to be healthy. Horses also only produce saliva when they chew, and saliva helps them prevent ulcers, so if they don't chew much, they don't have the saliva going into their stomache to buffer the acid back out.

Sorry, I have 7 horses and am a bit of a horse nerd...

 

[sheetmetaltom]

leaves fall from the trees in the fall. I shred enough to fill 5 large 40 gallon garbage bags. i use them in the nest boxes and the run. doesnt cost anything and i had to clean them up anyway the rest go into compost piles that the chickens dig and turn for me.

 

[RezChamp]

Brome grass apparently has a TON of sugar in it and is supposed to be one of the worst hays to feed horses (Don't know from experience, never seen the stuff, it isn't popular where i live in VA), never heard of the others... but yeah, horses are supposed to get 1.5-2.5% of their body weight in fiber foods a day, so a 1,000 pound horse would get roughly 20 pounds of hay a day, if you feed something really rich like alfalfa then you cut back the number of pounds to maybe 10 pounds and get the same nutrition, but the horse doesn't have the fiber or the chewing time it needs to be healthy. Horses also only produce saliva when they chew, and saliva helps them prevent ulcers, so if they don't chew much, they don't have the saliva going into their stomache to buffer the acid back out.

Sorry, I have 7 horses and am a bit of a horse nerd...

Cool. According to a lot of people in my life I'm nerd in so many areas. A wealth of knowledge to others. Depends on who needs what I think. I needed this info.
FYI, I've always found nerds cool. I'm a nerd, you're a nerd, we are nerds, there is no hope. That's my way of saying love like it is.
Thank you.
So, am I corrct in assuming I can safely give my App straw to counter balance alfalfa?

 

[Bonniestar]

What about straw?

 

[silkiefarmer]

We buy Bermuda grass for bedding in the nesting boxes and also for the coop floor. I like the smell, they are don't eat it, I believe it keeps the coop warm during cold nights. We replace it every month. Of course, every night we use paper towels or newspaper to lined underneath the roosting bar and scoop it every morning. So the bedding on the floor last longer, their house is cleaner and smells better. One time we tried straw, but did not like how the coop smell.

 

[Yumachick]

What do people in the western states do to keep their chickens from living in and around sand? I always wonder this when i see people write articles talking about how terrible sand is for chickens to be around. Do the people in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and the likes just not care about their chickens as much as everyone else?

Live in AZ desert. LOVE my girls. They love to dust bathe in the sand. We use straw in the coop (deep bedding) and nesting boxes, and let the ladies run around the yard for a couple hours a day. We get below freezing only once in a blue moon, so we only hv one solid wall on the coop to block the wind in winter and sun in summer. They get a heat lamp ti snuggle under if it goes beliw 50F or so.

 

[Kusanar]

Cool. According to a lot of people in my life I'm nerd in so many areas. A wealth of knowledge to others. Depends on who needs what I think. I needed this info.
FYI, I've always found nerds cool. I'm a nerd, you're a nerd, we are nerds, there is no hope. That's my way of saying love like it is.
Thank you.
So, am I corrct in assuming I can safely give my App straw to counter balance alfalfa?

Taking this to PM so everyone else doesn't have to read our chatting about horses.