Coop Bedding

[Mrs. Light Sussex]

Can peat based potting soil be used as bedding in a coop. It is highly absorbent, my concern is that it may have added fertilizers which may be harmful to the birds. If that is the case, would pure peat be acceptable?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Potting soil isn't a good idea. Pure peat moss could work.
Do you have access to horse stall type pine shavings?

 

[Mrs. Light Sussex]

What's wrong with potting soil, the additives?
Should the birds be restricted from a garden with a lot of potting soil?
No, unfortunately I don't have access to wood shavings.

 

[Leighe]

If you're talking coop and not nesting boxes, you can use sand. I use hay in my nesting boxes, sand in the coops and dirt floor in the big pen where the coops are.

 

[Mrs. Light Sussex]

What's wrong with sand in the nest boxes?

 

[Leighe]

What's wrong with sand in the nest boxes?

Don't honestly know that there's anything wrong with sand in nest boxes, I just like to have something I can change out easily if an egg cracks or its filthy from too many hens using it. Hay is quick. The sand I like under the roosts because I can do it like kitty litter and pick up their poop easy. But changing out sand is easier under a roost then in a small nesting box.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

What's wrong with potting soil, the additives?
Should the birds be restricted from a garden with a lot of potting soil?
No, unfortunately I don't have access to wood shavings.

Things like perlite, fertilizers, water absorbing/releasing particles.

 

[Almost Acre]

I'd go with pine shavings personally, then it can all go on the compost pile when it gets cleaned out.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Peat moss is fine, it doesn't have fertilizers and other things that could be harmful, though I use it for my dust bath, not as a bedding.

I personally wouldn't use sand in a nest box because it doesn't seem to have much cushion to it, and I wouldn't want broken or scratched up eggs. But maybe someone's used it successfully?