Expanded wood pellets

[mochicken]

My dad has some bags of wood pellets for his pellet stove and some of them got wet in the back of his truck and they swelled up to double the size of the normal pellets and they are easily smashed with your fingers. Have any of you ever used this kind of stuff in the coop or run before? I guess it would be similar to sawdust, I am thinking it would mold on the run floor but not sure, just figured I would try to use them some way rather than wasting them.

 

[Timberlane]

I am using a similar product in my coop right now. I really like. Way better than shavings for moisture control and they don't kick it into feeders/waters as much. I would say go for it.

 

[BoltonChicken]

You don't want anything that does not wick out moisture. Lots of mold/mildew can develop.

 

[lkmarx]

I have used wood pellets for over a year and a half now. They work fabulous! They absorb all of the moisture from the droppings. We live in Minnesota and had a VERY cold winter last year. The coop was sealed up pretty good and the pellets did not create moisture in there. It is a really good compost when spring time arrives! We use our pellets 4-6 inches deep throughout the coop.

 

[Farmerboy16]

We have a pellet stove, and the bags that the pellets comes in says "Warning, do not feed pets and livestock. May contains Black Walnuts." I do not use the ashes for the chickens to use too. Better safe then sorry. IMO.

 

[pawsplus]

I use a product intended for horse bedding, Equine Pine, which is very like the stove pellets (but is guaranteed to contain no walnut wood).

Is walnut an issue for chickens? It probably isn't. It IS an issue for horses (standing on walnut shavings/sawdust can induce laminitis) but I've never heard that it bothered chickens. So it's probably fine.

I LOVE the Equine Pine in my coop! Very clean and easy to keep that way. I use a horse stall fork w/ hardware cloth zip-tied over it to sift the poop out like a litter box.

 

[mochicken]

I hope walnut is not an issue because my chickens have a walnut tree right by their coop and run and walnuts even fall in the run sometimes, I have even cracked walnuts and fed them to the chickens lol, they are all healthy and looking fine so I guess no worries lol