Coop Bedding??

[mommto3kiddos]

What do you prefer for your coop bedding?. Upon research it seems alot favor shavings and alot favor straw! What do you prefer and feel is the "easiest" to keep clean??

 

[kla37]

I use pine shavings. It smells nice, and dries very quickly. Straw tends to stay wet and mold quickly. I do use straw in the nest boxes, but they don't seem to poop in there, and I still change it out every 2 weeks. I also sprinkle some DE or poultry dust on the shavings to help with any bugs that may get in there.

 

[eds500]

I use pine shavings in the house and straw in the nest boxes. The initial pine shavings spread is 4" deep. I sprinkled sweet PDZ under the roosts on the shavings where the poop tends to collect. Every day or so I'll sift the bedding to insure the poop is covered and dries. I'm attempting to go a month between full changes and then I'll throw the entire batch onto the compost pile. We'll see what happens to the frequency when the hot weather sets in.

 

[aprhardy]

We use sawdust on the main floor, and only a light layer in their nest boxes, on top of the sawdust in the nest boxes I use a hefty handful of hay which they end up rearranging to suite their needs.

 

[2txmedics]

I use DEEP LITTER SHAVINGS METHOD...and I LOVE it!!!! I started to use it like that after many attempts at different things.....this is by far the best. When I put in shavings about 4" thick I also add poultry dust for LICE/MITES....I change my coop shavings once a year!!! But I do shift through it once a week and I rake it with a rake to turn it over....THERE ARE NO FLIES, AND NOT A SINGLE STINK....I have 32 in that coop....

I stopped using Hay as I was told after alot of problems with it, that Hay is like a straw and can hold mites/lices in the shafts of it....and its a muddy mess once its wet with poop. I changed my shavings last year before summer and its coming time to take it out and re do it again, I did find out that you leave like maybe 1" to my 4" of the dirty sifted shavings this keeps the bacteria at a certain stage that makes it healthy....???? So thats what I do. I also keep it in my nests