Best Bedding for the winter in Wisconsin??

[ab333]

I am currently using pine shaving but am wondering if stray/hay would be better for the winter??
Thanks
Amy

 

[Tuffoldhen]

I'd stick with the pine shavings. Add some Stall Dry, Sweet PDZ or DE to help, that's what I do and we have nasty winters here in the mts. of WV where I live. Hay/Straw will draw dampness, get moldy quicker than the shavings, and also harbors bugs!

 

[Akane]

If you use straw or hay use some pine pellets under everything. Both will hold in moisture making everything damper and if we get a thaw you'll have a real mess unless you put something really absorbent underneath. Last year I did a thin layer of pine pellets that just covered the floor, 3-4inches of shavings, and then 2 bales of straw in a 170sq ft coop. Too much work and they ate all the straw by spring. This year I have half as much pine pellets and twice as much shavings ready to be spread out.

 

[scarter]

I live in WI and didn't know any better last year. I would go out to the coop every few weeks and freshen up the coop with new hay and some DE. I was trying to get more of a deep litter method going since my chickens don't have a heat source. I'd throw some cracked corn in all the corners and they'd go crazy churning it all up for me. In the summer I raked it all out and never had a smell or problem with mold. I do have a bare floor and that might be what saved us. This year I'm thinking of getting pine shavings to see if that's any different. Seeing as I had no problem I might just go back to freshening up with our extra hay. It can be done but after reading so much about it here I just wonder if I got lucky last year.

 

[patandchickens]

Shavings are probably the best from a warmth standpoint. THey are a better insulator than loose straw, and also they offer more potential for a cold chicken to snuggle down into them and warm up that way.

Nothing against straw if that's what you *have* or prefer for other reasons; just, for winter-specific purposes shavings have advantages.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[JoAnn_WI_4-H_Mom]

We are using pine shavings and "feeding" hay on top of that. Pine shavings seem to work better for daily poop pick-up, if you do that.

Our birds are in a tarp hut inside a pole shed. I am nervously watching...

 

[Bluemoon420]

I use pine shavings and deep litter method since it's a very large building. We had a bit of snow last night, and the building was warmer than outside. Nothing was frozen. It's a little windy today, and it's pretty cold, but they don't seem bothered by it. It was business as usual this morning when I let them out to free range.

Bluemoon

 

[Chooksaurus]

Using straw here. It seems to be doing well so far, but it is our first winter with them and it just started really getting cold.

 

[Buck Creek Chickens]

I use pine shavings, the only time i use straw is a bottom layer in a calf hutch then the shavings on top after the birds have trampled the straw a little, that makes for easier clean up in the spring when I move the hutch, I,ve had chickens in winter for 6 years now,

 

[fla_native]

A first class ticket to Key West?

Sorry, I just had to! I have a friend who lives in Wisconsin and he called me yesterday crying cause he was freezing to death!