green pine shavings

[djswett]

A bit confused here.
I bought 4 cu. feet of compressed pine/fir shavings at the local feed store. The lady that sold it said it would be fine (obviously). It seems to be a bit humid (as in green), and it smell pretty strong. If I could unpack it all and leave it out to dry I would, but it uncompresses into 12 cu. feet and i don't have enough room for such a mess.
Is it ok for my little 3 week old chicks?

And to make it a two part question:

WE used to keep the ladies in their brooder with a screen over newspaper flooring. I hosed off the screen and changed the newspaper every couple of days. Now with the wood shavings the brooder seems to be a mess. There's wood in the water, in the food, in their feathers, outside of the brooder, etc.
What is the proper technique here. Do i just dump the shavings every couple of days and refill the brooder with new stuff? Do i set the shavings over newspaper? Does it have to be super deep? Is it ok if they eat/drink it?

hmmm...

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

Shavings always smell strong when you first open them.
They will dry pretty quickly once you psread then out.

I'd just add layers of shaviings when they get messy, since they wont be in the brooder all that long anyway.
Then you can just dump it all when they are ready to come out.

Option 2 would be to raise them on the wire and put the shavings underneath to catch the droppings and help with the odors

That , of course, is dependent on how many chicks you have, and the size of your brooder