I first used them when hurricane Irma blew through. It was a horrid rainy season and I had to clean and dry out the coop every day.
They soaked up the water that had blown in under the door of the coop. I already had regular pine litter in there, but that was getting drenched. Desperate measures! Out in the downpour, I caulked around the door (great caulk you can use on a wet surface) and screwed a "sweep" across the bottom of the door to act as a rain shield - it worked!!
The pellets literally turn into sawdust. Of course they have a capacity limit so can't be left to soak up water indefinitely, but when using them as regular bedding you wet them first and they expand into, well, sawdust. It's quite lovely to use, actually. Very easy to do a quick poop-scoop cleanup if you only have a few chickens. The nifty thing, if you're a gardener, is that they are terrific compost. Almost pre-broken down. I used to compost the shavings, and they never broke down. Just made a hard wooden mass in the pile. So if I didn't put them there, where would I put them? In the field to fill holes. What a pain. This is so much better.
I hadn't heard of these pellets--thanks! My shavings take waaaaay too long to compost, so I'm moving aways from them.
