Hay or straw in run or neither for winter?

[Ebony Rose]

I live with very high humidity and heat. Straw molds quickly here, posing health hazards for my flock. I won't use it.

 

[Tilhana]

I've only used hay occasionally for short periods when I've been unable to obtain woodchips. I have a big meadow of tall grass in my back yard so if I rake it for a while I come up with a big pile of organic hay, but it's labor intensive. It's also not my preferred bedding as it quickly becomes flat, matted, and dirty and doesn't dry well. I always feel like I need a giant pile of fresh hay because they quickly trample it and it loses most of its volume.

I recently came across this website which gives a lot of great reasons why hay/straw shouldn't be used as chicken bedding (https://the-chicken-chick.com/reasons-straw-does-not-belong-in/). I can't personally confirm all the reasons she gives, but it was enough to make me never want to rake up hay again.

One other potential reason against using hay is that since about 2006 or so, most hay and straw grown in the US is contaminated with aminopyrilids, most commonly Grazon, a VERY persistent herbicide which kills all broadleaf plants. It's not harmful to grasses or livestock (at least as far as we know), so if you're just spreading it on your run and not planning to ever let it near a garden or compost pile, then it might be fine. But if you ever use chicken litter as compost in your garden, I would urge you to stay away from hay or straw unless you're growing it on your property or can guarantee that it was grown organically. Even after being fed to animals, composted, and aged for a year, Grazon-contaminated hay can destroy your garden for several YEARS. It's ridiculously persistent. There's a great article about this widely-used but rarely talked about contaminant here (https://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/dont-trust-hay-compost-or-manure-zbcz1704).

For me, it's woodchips all the way. I considered sand but I can't easily get it in quantity, and even if I could, what do I then do with all that soiled sand? Chicken manure is great for gardens, so it seems like a waste to let it all go into sand that I can't really compost. Woodchips, as Joel Salatin says, act as a "carbonaceous diaper". They soak up moisture and, as a bonus, harbor insects for the chickens to scratch in. I use it to cover my garden (which doubles as the chicken run in the winter), and in the coop. In most cases, you can just keep adding layers whenever it gets soiled, and the new dry woodchips will soak up the moisture from the layer below it, and the whole thing will slowly compost from the bottom up. Then periodically you scoop out all the litter and compost it or put it right on your garden.

I live in a heavily wooded area so I'm constantly running into city workers cleaning up fallen branches by the side of the road near my house and chipping them. When my chip pile starts getting low, I just flag down the next one I see and ask them if they can drop their pile at my house. You can also use chipdrop.com to try to connect with arborists in your area to do the same. It works better in some areas than others.

 

[Mayhaps Moss]

If the sand is working well, I wouldn't add any hay or straw. It very quickly rots down and just makes things smelly and muddy, especially if you don't have a covered run. (I learnt this the hard way...)

 

[BPChickenFarmer]

Sands the best, but make sure it course washed sand because it drain well. Builders/multi-purpose sand doesn't drain as well. Buy it at a gravel pit, asphalt or concrete yard.
Put down 4"-6" of drain rock if you can and cover it with fabric then the 4"-6" of sand on top. That way you can spray it down and rinse out the urine and have excellent drainage also. I rake it down and put the spoils in the compost pile. I top dress it once a year.

David

 

[lifein1840]

I have a multipurpose sand in the run right now and it works out pretty well but I'm wondering if I should put hay or straw in the run for the winter months any ideas or suggestions?

I put all the leaves from my yard in the coop and run, next spring, they are crunched up, fertilized and ready to go to the garden!! Last year I finally have a new garden/run area that is used to grow veggies all spring summer and fall then I turn the hens in on the leaves and by spring, they have made great compost right where I need it!

 

[jreardon1918]

I put all the leaves from my yard in the coop and run, next spring, they are crunched up, fertilized and ready to go to the garden!! Last year I finally have a new garden/run area that is used to grow veggies all spring summer and fall then I turn the hens in on the leaves and by spring, they have made great compost right where I need it!

I just added leaves, pine needles, cut grass to the run. I too add the compost this creates to the gardens. But I do the compost add in the fall. I do af part of a straw bale to the run. But that makes it most of the winter as a bale.

 

[Bob 1313]

We have had great success using both. Throw down the chopped straw first and follow right behind it with the alfalfa. The mixture seems to work quite well. The straw soaks up the water from the melting snow, which keeps the mud to a minimum, and the alfalfa both entertains the birds and keeps them mixing everything up. We have found their scratching helps dry up the run more quickly. Next time it snows it is easy to scoop it all out, poop and all. We then have a clean run to start all over with.


After 10 years of trying different materials and methods, this has worked the best so far.

 

[BPChickenFarmer]

That's a good idea, but won't work for my setup. You wouldn't believe where I live and that I have chickens. I have an outside run where I do my composting and they do keep things stirred up. So, as my shoulder surgery is healed I'm going to build them a new coop. The one they have is a store bought one. Wife wonted the chickens and guess who takes care of them. They were go for me and they helped me get through my brain injury. I think I'll post pictures of them here soon.

 

[Mother-Hen-Michele]

Ohhhh I have TONS of leaves here!!

they will turn them into the most beautiful soil you have ever seen. You remove what they have torn up and give them new ones, use the "finished" leaves in your garden. I am so impressed with their soil amendment skills. ++ =

 

[paintedChix]

Be aware that the biggest thing is to not use a lot of any one thing in one spot. That said - you don't need to spread it out - the chickens will do that. Anything can rot/mold/mildew in a hurry - I've had moldy sawdust and pine shavings before when using on our horse stalls - in a high heat/high humidty atmosphere. The thing to do is to work it - adjusting - until it works.

Here is another good video on composting with the chickens. I haven't watched all his videos this year - there looks to be a lot fewer hens. He doesn't actually state in this video how many he actually has right now. Edible Acres nursery is in NY.

Chicken compost - leaf bag mountain and rock mulch working