Coop Bedding material for floor

[Chicky Tocks]

I don't use them. My coop is a mixture of pine shavings and rice hulls. My 6 week old chicks have been on them for two weeks and I go in and stir things around pretty much daily. There's linoleum under that. I also mix Sweet PDZ with them so this keeps the smell down. I can get pine shavings for 4.75 for a nice big block of them at my farmers coop. TSC charges 7.00 for the same size. Only reason rice hulls are in the mix is because I didn't have a thick enough bedding and my farmers co-op was out of pine shavings at that time. I just bought two more big blocks of shavings.

I think the wood pellets are awesome and if I could afford them, I would use them, but my coop is too big to cover the floor as deep as I need to. Betcha geared can answer that question for you though.

 

[SC_Hugh]

Quote:
Hi Jamie,

The scoop able kitty litter should only be used under the roosting area inside your coop. Chickens like to roost at night and also poop a lot at night, so this is where the waste collects. Scoop it out as often as needed and it will stay cleaner than the floor.

My $0.02 and first post,

Hugh

 

[geareduplyn]

Quote:
How often do you find you need to change the coop bedding completely with the pellets?

Jamie

I never actually change them. I use a deep litter managment and just scoop out some of the broken down pellets and poop, and add some fresh pellets to the bedding. The way that the pellets break down and absorb the moisture in the droppings make a manure mixture that can be run through an ordinary drop fertilizer spreader. Great for lawns and gardens.

 

[Uppity Peon]

I plan to compost the bedding and because of that, cat litter really does not appeal to me. The pelletized sawdust "animal bedding" is great, and around here straw is really cheap and easy to get.

 

[Judy]

I have read here that stove pellets can have undesirable chemicals in them.

 

[hen-thusiast]

Quote:
I use pellets (Feline Pine) with my rabbits. Everything I researched said wood pellets were fine, you just can't use the clumping stuff. Best part is it keeps the odor to next to nothing.

 

[SMan]

What you burn is more highly regulated than pet food, that being said heating pellets contain nothing toxic when consumed or burned. Atleast the ones we use here, my 2 Abe's

 

[desertcat]

Just a thought about the differences between stove pellets and bedding pellets...the stove pellets are designed to burn. The bedding pellets, if exposed to excess heat or sparks, will smolder and turn black, but I haven't had any actually combust. Suffice to say that I learned this when DH & a welder decided to do some modifications to an already bedded stall!