Hay in nest boxes and bedding

[fiberart57]

Hello,
For those of you who use hay as bedding I have a couple of questions.

First: What kind of hay do you use? Alfalfa? Grass? or something else or of both? Second: Do the chickens eat it?

My girls have been getting fresh alfalfa for supplemental snacks for about six weeks and I'd like to use hay (I have hay-growing rancher friends) but I'm afraid that it would become a feast and they would get crop problems.

Thanks, Mary

 

[briteday]

I bought a bale of bedding straw in the Spring. I only use it on the roost poop shelf and in the nests. however, there is quite a bit on the floor of the coop now. And I do see the girls picking and munching once in a while. They don't seem to be any worse for it though.

 

[Beekissed]

I've always used hay for nesting and bedding....never had a problem. Just any old hay will do...well... you won't want any mouldy hay.

 

[G Wiz Ranch]

I thought that I read in a book that the hollow straw can help house mites and bugs. I could be wrong. I use both pine shaving and a grassy hay (generic Timithy hay) in my nest boxes. When I used just pine is seemed like it was always geting scratched out of the box, when I used just hay, they just made a round nest and the bottom center was always exposed. So now I use pine shavings on the bottom and hay on top.

 

[Monk]

Hay or straw in the nesting boxes and shavings on the floor.

 

[quercus21]

Straw in the nest boxes, and wood chips/shavings on the floor

 

[journey's end]

Grass clippings here (we have a big yard) or shavings if we're out of clippings. I find hay and straw is hard to shovel out.

 

[Zahboo]

i use wheat straw only if i have de

 

[2txmedics]

I was using Hay...I have a friend that has show pygmy goats, and if the hay falls to the ground, the goats dont eat it...and then he burns it. so he was giving it to me, free...all the hay I wanted. Well I had it in the nest boxes...it gets dry with this texas heat and gets hard....so I would replace it.

Then I read that HAY makes the chickens hotter...I have read it on the net and in books...so I bought shavings...man it sure helps keeping the coop CLEAN!!!!....I use to clean the coop every 2 days...now its been over one month since Ive cleaned it. I go in and get the rake and rake it around and get the heavy poop out...smells good, and clean. and they can snuggle in it also.

for winter I might go back to hay for the warmth.