cedar and other wood shavings

[treeowl]

My dad does alot of wood working as a hobby and accumulates alot of wood shavings, such as pine, cedar, walnut ect when he planes boards. Will it hurt my chickens to use it in the hen house? It is very soft and appears to be something that would make a wonderful bedding for their boxes and the floor of the hen house.

 

[kathyinmo]

Don't use cedar, as it is toxic to chickens. There is an aroma, and chickens do have a delicate respiratory system.

 

[patandchickens]

Many people use cedar shavings with no problem, including large commercial broiler farms that have considerable economic incentive to avoid any illness. OTOH there *is* pretty good reason to believe that in some situations the volatile oils in cedar shavings can cause problems.

So it is kind of a matter of personal choice. The more very-well-ventilated your coop is, the less of any problem you're likely to have. Adult chickens are probably less iffy with cedar shavings than chicks in a brooder. I personally would not use cedar but enough people do, and have no problems, that I do not think it is reasonable when some folks paint it as an automatic death sentence or something (not saying you did, of course, Kathy, just referring to some other threads on the subject)

Personal decision, I think.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat