Four hours, three stores, two counties

[gritsar]

Quote:
That's seems awful high. As I already posted, I can get 7 cu. ft. for $5 and change at Atwoods. Nice shavings, with very little sawdust at the bottom of the bag.
I won't use straw, even if I could find it. The co-op has hay, but I already have a couple bales of hay I use in my nestboxes only.
I'll just have to keep turning and DE'ing until the end of the week when hopefully there will be pine shavings available again.

 

[Coopedup:p]

use hay. or go to a pet store for the shavings. look in the rodent isle like hamster shavings. or guinea pig shavings. or get the large bags for dog houses or kennels and stuff. but i mainly use hay. they like to build nests out of it.

 

[wombat]

Quote:
That's seems awful high. As I already posted, I can get 7 cu. ft. for $5 and change at Atwoods. Nice shavings, with very little sawdust at the bottom of the bag.
I won't use straw, even if I could find it. The co-op has hay, but I already have a couple bales of hay I use in my nestboxes only.
I'll just have to keep turning and DE'ing until the end of the week when hopefully there will be pine shavings available again.

Pet store pine shavings are usually not compressed, and they cost a fortue compared to feed mills. They're for people with small rodents and such, who'll pay $15 a bag because that bag will last a year.

I'd guess the compressed feed mill bales I get are about 2.5 times as much shavings as the pet store bags, and cost 1/3 as much, so you'd be paying about 7.5x as much going to Petsmart. I bought a Petsmart bag once, back when I got my first batch of chicks ... silly wombat.

 

[Chickenaddict]

I just picked up 6 bags of pine shavings yesterday here for $5.89 each, 7 cf compressed, and 2 bales of straw at $2.99 each which is a steal! The pine shavings have gone up in price since last year and the straw bales are usually about $5 each as well. Do you have a fleet farm there? I know they carry a few different types of wood shavings for horses/farm animals and it's cheaper then the co op where I get my shavings. However I quit buying the shavings at fleet farm because they were infested with these little black bugs called wood mites which are harmless to the chickens but a pain in the butt when they cover everything in the coop and crawl alll over you.

 

[Casey3043]

Guess I didn't make it clear---that price is for Aspen shavings. I looked at the bag this morning and it is 2 cu. ft., expands to 4 cu. ft. I don't use pine, although I know it is cheaper. I am sure I saw something on this site about the aromatic oils from pine (not just cedar) being bad for the respiratory system.

The aspen shavings fluff up nicely, last a long time, keep down the odor, and compost nicely in the garden along with the chicken poo when I am done with them in the coop. It just comes down to what you like for your chickens.

 

[lindabean]

Don't know how many chickens you are working with, but when I first started & didn't have shavings, I used all the cross cut shredded paper from my home office. It even composts pretty well as long as you don't use the heavy colored adverts. It works in a pinch.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Nah, I'm going to have to wait for Atwoods or walmart - whoever gets them first - to have pine shavings. My coop is 8 x 10 and I use the deep litter method.
I turned the shavings yesterday, after adding DE. It's still not as fresh looking as I like it, but it'll have to do until Friday.
Thanks for the idea though Linda.

 

[The Chicken People]

I get my shavings from a cabinet Making Shop in town for free...has a lot od dust is that a problem?