did a little experiment last night.

[flopshot]

not sure if this is the correct section but since it deals with bedding i stuck it here. some might remember me brooding my chicks in the fireplace. if nothing else it would be easy to clean out when i was done. i put them in the coop last week an figured i'd clean out the fireplace the other night when i couldn't sleep. i was using pine shavings. i piled a bit of the shavings and flicked a bic at it. no fire. another , longer application of fire and still no fire. i got thinking about this in light of a couple of posts involving coop fires in the past week or so and thought i would video my attempts but alas my camera decided to take a dump. anyway, this is what i found.
i gave up on the bic and used a MAPP torch. with apx ten seconds of applying flame the four inch high pile burned with little or no acceleration for apx two minutes and died out. i applyed the flame to an undisturbed flat section of pine shavings for about the same amount of time and within ten seconds there were no burning shavings. i don't have to tell you how it went when i tried some coastal straw but to say the least, the straw did not last long. for the last test i placed some more straw on top of the shavings and lit it. the straw was gone quickly and again, the shavings did not ignite. this pretty much did it for me as far as my bedding of choice. if some of you have nothing else to do try it and see if you have similar result. perhaps this will help some in choosing their bedding material.

 

[CoopCrazy]

Thats great... The only thing with shavings is if they are not turned or get moist they can combust... I had a very close friend who's horse was severly burned after a barn fire resulting from shavings getting wet and not being turned.. I mix mine around every day to keep the chances down.... i also dump my left over layer feed in the coop once aweek and let the girls scratch it around..

 

[Renee']

Interesting. Thanks for sharing.

 

[flopshot]

Quote:
spontaneous combustion. i've heard of compost piles doing that.

 

[CoopCrazy]

It was devastating.. They had 20 horses and hers was the only one to survive, He jumped a 6ft gate and burned his back on a burning rafter... None of the other horses made it... I have actually had this happen with a bale of straw also that got wet.. Went outside and saw smoke coming from one busted it open and it was smoldering all the way thru..

 

[turnerstar31]

Thats why they say not to put wet hay in barns for cattle and what not. Alot of barn fires occur because of this and I fear it since I have always heard of it happening. My Dad did tell me though that if you sprinkle salt on top it sometimes helps to stop this from happening.

 

[patandchickens]

Both straw and shavings (and anything else organic) will heat up if left wet in a big pile. Neither is likely to combust, however.

The spontaneous-combustion barn fires you get are from green HAY stacked in too big a pile without enough ventilation, which is just a little bit different. And yes, salting hay baled a bit on the damp side does decrease the chance of fire somewhat.

Pat

 

[duckboatprincess]

I heard that too about the salt but it makes the hay mold faster too.

 

[CoyoteMagic]

Throw a handful of DE followed by a couple of handfuls of scatch. Your shavings will be dried and tossed with no effect on your part!

 

[mightieskeeper]

Good job for the chickens to do!