Brooder bedding

[fiddlebanshee]

Quote:
Great! I'm glad it worked out for you.

 

[ladyride]

I have used the wood pellets with all the new ones usually I will put down paper towels for a few days change them everyday. I have had no problems with them eating them. Currently I have week old broiler chicks on them no problem. I also use these in my main coops as well. Love 'em.

 

[TinyChickenLady]

Quote:
I didn't think the cedar vs. pine thing was about personal preference, I thought the oil in the cedar is toxic to the chickens. Or so I've read on here in numerous places. But I am NOT an expert at all.

It is toxic.

 

[Our Roost]

Well, well! Lots of comments circulating, but no real cures just yet for a most common problem with bedding and what to use thats economical and lasts without odors and mildew. My son cuts down and removes trees for a living and landscapes. Every variety you can imagine gets turned into wood chips! So I posed the question to him in regards to what would be best to use for bedding in a broooder and the coop area. Immediately a few things came to his mind as what not to use in a brooder! Pine shavings can be too dusty and contains pine sap fragments. Cyprus mulch has too many bugs and junk in it. Cedar causes respiratory problems in a mulch state, but not in a wood state used for closets and such. Ground up old crates turned into mulch are just pure junk wood and may have creosote in it. Wood pellets are compressed and bonded together with sprayed glues and resins. These are a few products he highly would not reccomend. Not all trees are marketed for or used for ground cover or decorative mulch.
The one product he did suggest was Aspen chips. It is fragrant and is a little harder than pine and offsets odors and mold. It can be purchased at most feed stores and is quite frequently used for all types of pets as well as chickens. I am currently using this in my brooder and after five days with 25 chicks I just changed it. I found it to be very absorbent and the chicks buried their noses in it while sleeping! Their instinctive scratching and clawing seemed to help the bedding more than it helped them. They didnt eat it, but had fun pecking at it! My coop on the other hand is much bigger and is going to require something a little easier on the pocket book. I will keep you posted on suggestions about that one.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

Wow...all this discontent with wood shavings.

I put the waterer up on bricks as well as the feeder. This has greatly reduced the debris contaminating these two items.


Wood pellets do sound like a feasable fall back plan, though. When the pellets are made there is a binding agent that is mixed with the material then extreme pressure is applied to bind the material together to make pellets. Some binding agents are realatively inert and would be no problem for use as bedding, while other types of binders are much more noxious.

I don't really have a list of the noxious binders, but realize that wood pellets are intended as a fuel to be burned.

 

[CariLynn]

I vacuum around the giant crate the wee peeps are in, well not so wee for me, but I really don't mind at all. Part of housework anyway. I do have hay and wonder if I should rake up what is out there right now in the hay barn and use that tonight, they may like that too but I worry they will try to eat it and get something stuck. I have always used pine shavings for everything, chicken coop, brooder crate, horse stalls....never had a problem with it and don't mind cleaning it up either.

I also put our peep food and water on a brick so it stays off the crate or outdoors and they can get to it a lot easier that way.

 

[coolcanoechic]

I have been using chopped hay / straw mulch. I put it in deep and it lasts for many days. It stays dry and smells nice. I mix it up a little once a day and the chicks can easily walk on it and find it very comfortable to sleep on. They do not eat it, but love to scratch in it and even dust bathe in it. It has not raised as much dust as the pine shavings I started with. I also use this stuff in my coop with great sucess. The hens love it so much, that when I do clean out the coop and add new mulch, they can't even wait for me to get it out of the bag. They dive right in. I think it's the hay seeds in there that they love so much. It also works well in the veggie beds after composting. After having tried everything in my coop, I found this and won't use anything else. It's awesome!

 

[Our Roost]

Hmmm, well my chicks arent big enough for bricks as yet even though they hop up on everything. The shavings usually get dragged along for the ride and end up in the water anyways. Too cute! I have to do some homework on the pellets before I'm sold on that idea, but it sounds interesting. Maintenance and cleanup on the coop floor and nesting boxes is a major chore. Pellets might help that effort!

 

[Our Roost]

Thanks for including the picture and the feedback on use of this product. Glad to have the name of the supplier visible for finding a local store. I have a dirt floor in my coop and my only concern is dampness and moisture. I will definitely use this in my nesting boxes. The bag says it absorbs moisture? Any mold or odor problems?

 

[gryeyes]

Another option is rue hulls. A lot of folks swear by 'em.

I have always used pine shavings, the larger shavings, not the itty bitty bits. A piece of a two by four makes a great "stand" for the feeder and waterer in the brooder.

I have a dirt floor in my coop, but it's covered with close to 7 inches of shavings. I started with about three inches. I don't clean out the coop, just add more shavings. The chickens actually spread the bales for me!

Chickens themselves are "dusty" - that comes from their feather shafts as feathers come in.