Dry Leaves As Bedding?

[NorthCoastChick]

Thanks for the quick replies. I'm going to check out the emergency section to figure out the poison issue.
I wouldn't necessarily use the leaves for nest boxes, just for the floor.
Sooo....I don't actually have any chickens yet. (Yes, I know this is a chicken forum!) I like to do a ton of research before I start something, that way I can learn from other's mistakes and successes, and hopefully get off to a great start. I've been lurking here a lot and learning a lot, so I finally am starting to figure out this chicken thing. Guess I should post in the introductions...
BTW, this forum is awesome!

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
No major problems, although in many cases it may not be *as* advantageous as yo may be thinking.

You do have to bale your leaves very very DRY so they don't mold in the bags, and then keep a close eye on them in the coop for mold. If left in there for "a while" they will tend to mat together and pack down much worse than shavings typically do, so you want to keep them frequently-cleaned or at least assiduously stirred, more or less like using straw.

The main thing IMO is that shavings are actually quite cheap (a single $5 bale of shavings from the feedstore goes a LONG way, they expand when unwrapped) and with intelligent management can last a looong time. Droppings boards, cleaned daily (takes only 10 seconds, *literally*), go a long way towards extending the life of bedding. As compared to the labor required to rake up all them leaves, ensuring they are fully dry at the time, and the likelihood of having to change them out more oftne than you would with shavings. (I say 'likelihood' b/c there are SO many differeent ways of managing coop sanitation, depending partly on personal taste and partly on details of your setup, and in situations where you change the bedding completely on a very very frequent basis there may not be a difference in labor).

So, you can try it if you want, a few people do it on a regular basis; but, you may also find that in the long run it is simpler to either leave the leaves where they fall to enrich the soil (shred 'em with the lawnmower if they are leaves on your lawn), or use them for other purposes such as garden mulch or compost. Try it, experiment, see what works for you

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[gsim]

Leaves and pine needles are great wintertime litter, nest materials, and good for topping off to freshen up in mid winter. I use grass clippings all summer long and only add the leaves and pine needles at mid to late winter. Leaves are better used after running thru lawnmower I think. I think you will have less settling of the litter that way over the winter. You will have no mold problems if you make sure that any litter put in there is dry and not even damp. That is key. Best thing about grass clippings, leaves and pine needles, is they are free. When I add fresh grass clippings, I do it in a thin layer so as to allow it to dry more thoroughly after spread in coop. Never have had mold yet. Smells good too. Doing it this way and doing a daily scraping of poop planks

is the way to have a clean smelling coop with healthy air for the chooks to breathe all night long.

 

[#1California Chick]

I use dry leaves in both my coop and run. The girls love them and they work great!

I started out with pine shavings on the floor of my coop. I have a large POOP board, so not much poop ends up on the floor. Then in Oct and Nov, I added a couple of garbage cans of dry leaves. The hens had the leaves pulverized in a few days. I currently have about 3 to 4 inches of shavings/shredded leaves on the floor of the coop. No odor, no mold!! In the rainy weather, sometimes the girls "dust bathe" in the litter in the coop! I add a little DM every once in a while. I will probably empty it all out in the spring and start over. But I should have to do this only once or twice a year!!

In my large run, I started out in the fall adding 1 to 2 garbage cans of dry leaves each week to the run. Again, they were shredded in a day or two. The girls loved looking for bugs!! And it gave them something to do!! After 4 months, the "ground" level of the run has risen by about 3 inches! The GOOD news is that rain water runs "around" the run and the run stays relatively dry. However, I cannot continue to raise the level of the run. So I have started to dig out some of the "dirt" from the run each time I clean the poop from the coop. I mix them both together in my compost bin, I think that it will help speed the breakdown of the "poop" in my compost. I think that adding leaves to my run helps it drain much faster than "regular" dirt!!

Because I have lots of oak trees on my property, I have more leaves than I can put in the coop in a week. For the last couple of months I have been storing the "extras" under a tarp. This keeps it dry from the rains, but also lets natural "critters" into the leaves (think worms, rolly pollies, etc.). I am sure that my girls will be happy for the "enhanced" leaves in the spring!!!

In my nest boxes, I use pine shavings and straw (with DM sprinkled over all).

Good Luck!!
Cindy

 

[FlashPointFarm]

I like this idea! I could store them in empty feed bags!

Quote:

 

[Akane]

Ever flipped over leaves left piled on something... complete goo. They insulate moisture instead of absorbing it so they would need fluffed or turned frequently. Also watch what leaves. Some trees are toxic. Others just contain high levels of tannins that can harm some animals. Dunno about chickens but I sure wouldn't risk it considering a bale of pestel brand pine big enough to fill my 8x8 coop is about $8 from the feed store.

 

[myfivegirls]

I'm using leaves now, and since everything freezes during the winter, I don't have that much of a problem with moisture. The different beddings I've used have been leaves, straw, hay, etc, and although there are sources that say that they're not the best type of bedding, they have worked for me. I just watch for when it looks like it needs to be cleaned out. I haven't had to buy any bedding yet, but I probably will when I get chicks, to be on the safe side.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

I've used whatever I could rake up from my property as bedding inside my henhouses for many years now. Typically a varying mixture of pine straw, oak leaves, and grass. It works great and it's free.

.....Alan.

 

[MiniBeesKnees]

I got chickens the first week in April last year and although I was doing the research, and planning for them...I went to a chicken show and came home with a pair of Duccles without having made any arrangements for them. I have two giant trees on my property so used leaves as a temporary solution because I had them. Lots of them. They worked just fine...the hen went broody and raised a hatch of chicks in the temporary pen and dog crate with the leaves.

I put up a run 6.5 feet by 13 feet using the fence panels I make and covered it with a tarp. I used a medium dog crate...the 'airline' kind wrapped C'mas present style with another tarp, and put old cake pans out there for water and food.

I had to make a major adjustment to lower that top tarp to angle down so rain would run off as rain collected in the middle and the whole works threatened to come down. You could also make a hole at the lowest place and let the rain come through it and land in a rubbermaid tub, a big bucket, or some other container. I called that bailing out my chicken yard.

I've read on here too of using bags of leaves as insulation inside a large coop. In my case if I wanted to do that I'd have bagged the leaves and tied the top well, and tacked the top of the bag to the wood interior of the coop to keep the bags from falling down.

Terry in TN

 

[NorthCoastChick]

Maybe just leaves in the dry winter season, and shavings in the summer? My concern is that the shavings won't compost well, but I also want the birds to be healthy, so more research is in order. Aaargh! Too much to think about this early in the morning!