Hatching Eggs / Paypal CHAT Thread

[CelticOaksFarm]

oh plus they compost well so a garden dream too. People up north can save money and buy wood stove pellets............ same darn thing lol

 

[WVstruttin]

pellets are AMAZING .. put them in dry and whole, as they make messes they absorb the water and start fluffing up. They smell good all the time too

how big are they? wont the chickens eat them? my birds are used to getting pellets to eat

 

[cluckitall]

I'm going to look up the equine fresh. Any idea what it is?

It's compressed sawdust. They squeeze it into pellets, which then expand back into sawdust as they absorb moisture. The bag looks small, but it'll actually expand to cover about what a pine shavings bag covers -- with the added benefit of absorbing wetness So no, don't wet it when you put it down -- the girls will do that for you.

TSC has a house-brand version that's often on sale for 5.49 a bag, here. And yeah, it makes a huge difference on the smell! That and a few handfuls of DE thrown in a few times a month make a world of difference

I have a major problem with damp floors in my coop, too -- because whoever decided to build this barn decided to put it at the bottom of a slope from which all the topsoil had been scraped (WHAT idiot does that??? Do they know how long it takes to rebuild topsoil?) So yeah, I have a long clay slope leading straight to the barn... The coop floor is actually slightly below the ground outside, so I haven't been cleaning out so much as cleaning up -- the idea being to get the actual floor a good four-six inches above the outlying ground. Preferably before spring rains

The pens in the barn are prone to the same problem, only not half so bad. Same thing -- I'm working on raising the base as much as possible. LOTS of organic material and DE, and drop-boards for directly under the roosts to keep the chicken poop component of the "new" flooring to a reasonable percentage.

 

[caj1985]

Do you wet the pellets when you first put them down?

No. It will absorb all the moisture from the poo and gradually break down and turn into like sawdust. It is basically the same thing as Feline Pine cat litter and can also be used as it but is MUCH cheaper. It was designed as a horse stall pellet which lets you know how absorbent it is.

I've tried several brands and found little difference. I just get whatever is cheaper at the time.

I really like it in the brooder. That I do clean out between batches of chicks just to keep them from cross-contaminating, but I'm not fanatical about removing every little bit of it. I feel like it gives them a boost on the immunity to whatever you have on your farm. I also will take a little bit of grass/sod that my others have been on and put it in with the chicks after they are up a week or two old (with grit, of course) in order to give them a headstart on immunities. Fingers crossed, I haven't had any sick birds yet. I think the ACV in the water helps also. I use that from day one with my chicks.

 

[cluckitall]

how big are they? wont the chickens eat them? my birds are used to getting pellets to eat

Nope -- they're about 1/2 inch thick and maybe an inch long. Too big for my greedy guts, at least!

 

[caj1985]

Nope -- they're about 1/2 inch thick and maybe an inch long. Too big for my greedy guts, at least!

Also, it is like anything else, they will peck at anything new and decide whether it is food or not. They quickly figure out it isn't.

 

[chiqita]

YUCK. I just went to a dirty disgusting farm nearby to look at some bantam Cochins. It was horrible. They where the type of people too, who thought they knew everything and I knew nothing. I had asked on the phone if the Cochins had vulture hocks, he didn't know what that is... Which is fine. Decided to check on them anyway. Turns out they all colors thrown together. Then I saw a pair of blue LF Cochins which I love. They where ok quality wise. Hen looked decent, legs left some to be desired. rooster seriously lacked in tail and wing structure. She tried to tell me they where worth $75 but she would sell them to me for $50. I may have paid $30. However the place is so gross I am seriously considering throwing my shoes away in town and buying a new pair before going back to my house

Make sure to decontaminate your shoes and cloths so you don't bring back anything from those birds if they were that filthy.

 

[sonew123]

oh plus they compost well so a garden dream too. People up north can save money and buy wood stove pellets............ same darn thing lol

WHAT???? really?

 

[CasieD]

oh plus they compost well so a garden dream too. People up north can save money and buy wood stove pellets............ same darn thing lol

I was just going to ask if the wood heating pellets would be the same. I'm heading to the feed store in a few minutes to get a couple bags of Sweet PDZ and now I'm going to get some wood pellets too. They should be cheap here as there's a plant that makes them just a couple miles from us. I think around $4/40# bag.

I use the PDZ in the poop trays under the roost and scoop them out daily like a litter box. Since we put those in the shavings on the floor last at least 3 times longer and the coop smells nice all the time too!

 

[Lilwanis]

I have been using pine shavings and DE in the coop as a deep litter method. How do the pellets do for maintaining heat? I am not using any heat in the coop and so far they seem fine. We have been using a roof deciding cable to keep the water from freezing, which is also working great (I was skeptical at first, but daily morning checks have proven that it works). The pellets are the same as the wood stove pellets? How convenient is that?