Coop bedding material

[stone_family3]

I have access to an unlimited wood shavings, saw dust, sand and hay. Which would be a good material? Is mixing materials advisable? Anything i should avoid?

Im in NY.

 

[DobieLover]

Avoid anything dusty, that could harbor mold or insects and any aromatic cedar.
I would use the shavings.

 

[saysfaa]

Wood shavings are most likely to be best in the most climates. If it is raw wood - it is unlikely to be painted or varnished or treated wood but if it is, that can be a problem. Also, not Eastern Cedar.

Sawdust, if raw wood and not Eastern Cedar, can work well. It doesn't dry out as readily as wood shavings so there are more situations where it has problems. Basically, if gets rained on or the waterer spills on it much, it can be a problem. In a deep litter (active composting - where you want it to have moisture) it can work well. It can be a problem for small chicks because it looks like food.

There are a lot of kinds of hay. Some can work very well in most set ups, some can work well in some set ups, some are problematic in most set ups. Chopped hay works in most set ups. Long stem grass hay should work pretty well - I don't often see people talk about using it and I have used it in any quantity only in the nest boxes. Alfalfa and some types of weeds tend to tangle - this works well for throwing it by the flake out on top of snow in the runs but not so much in coops. It is hard to scratch in and can, maybe, be hard to clean out.

Sand works very well in certain climates and set ups but is awful in other climates or set ups. I don't know much about how dry (warm and dry?) the climate needs to be for it to work well enough. Or maybe it just needs to be where it can drain well? I think some people have used it in the front section of a Woods' coop in cold, dampish climates and liked it. I've only used it on the poop board where it tended to freeze around the poops or between the poops and the board more than I liked.

Mixing organic materials very often works better than having a single material. I'm less sure about mixing sand with the other options.

 

[aart]

What kind of bedding you use may depend on how you manage the manure.
This is about cleaning, but covers my big picture

-I use poop boards under roosts with thin(<1/2") layer of sand/PDZ mix, sifted daily(takes 5-10mins) into bucket going to friends compost.
-Scrape big or wet poops off roost and ramps as needed.
- Large flake pine shavings on coop floor, add some occasionally, totally changed out once or twice a year, old shavings added to run.
- My runs have semi-deep litter(cold composting), never clean anything out, just add smaller dry materials on occasion, add larger wood chippings as needed.
Aged ramial wood chippings are best IMO.
-Nests are bedded with straw, add some occasionally, change out if needed(broken egg).

There is no odor, unless a fresh cecal has been dropped and when I open the bucket to add more poop.
That's how I keep it 'clean', have not found any reason to clean 'deeper' in 9 years.

 

[3KillerBs]

Wood shavings have the advantage of being particularly easy to handle and relatively resistant to packing and matting.

I have no experience with sawdust or sand but STRONGLY dislike the idea of scooping poop, which is absolutely necessary for a sand setup.

Hay, unlike straw, is a compost green and thus won't provide the carbon necessary to compost down the nitrogen-rich poop, but *can* perform the function of a drying agent just like straw. I've never used it, but I have used straw and find that it works fine except for a greater tendency to pack and mat -- potentially forming anaerobic pockets.

I personally like a mix of materials -- often wood shavings, pine straw, straw, and random lawn debris.

 

[stone_family3]

Thanks everyone. Majority of the saw dust and wood chips is pine though it might have iron wood, hemlock, oak and maple mixed in though not much.

I like the idea of wood in the main coop, hay/straw in the nesting boxes and sand/pdz on the poop boards. I also plan on putting a shallow bin under the coop (part of the run) full of a sand/wood ash mix.

 

[texsuze]

I use bagged pine shavings inside my coop and in my barn run, since I was buying them for many years for horse stall bedding. My nest boxes have coastal bermuda hay, again, for horse forage.