Hay or Straw in run?

[tlabatte]

Sorry to interrupt the thread.... What is "DE"?

 

[joanm]

Diatomaceous Earth - Food Grade

http://www.gardenharvestsupply.com/productcart/pc/viewCategories.asp?idCategory=11

 

[ozark hen]

I saw in a farm journal where I man took a large round bale of hay..not straw..and unrolled it in his chicken run around Jan. or Feb. the chickens picked the seeds but some seeds dropped down to the ground and came up in the spring for the chickens to pick at. The chickens also turned all that hay into mulch plus it kept their feet up off the frozen ground. My dh has ordered two round bales of hay for us for this winter...well, not for us to pick at but for the chicken run.

The farmer in the article had been using this method and was real pleased with it.
D.E. is diatamaceous earth and can be purchased at most feed stores but you specify FOOD GRADE ONLY. I think you can get it at most farm stores.
I have read on byc that mixing a little of the cedar shavings in with the pine shavings is ok but I definitely would not use all cedar shavings.
For more info on any of the above things just go to your search button and type in ...diatamaceous earth or pine shavings or whatever you need more info on. Hope this helped you guys?

 

[3peeps]

I've read on here, also, that cedar is bad for chickens. Something to do with the resin?

Someone else will know more...

 

[joanm]

So I went to the feed store and bought coastal hay. I put some in the run and decided they needed something in the hay to forage for. I took a handful of wild bird seed and a handful of black oil sunflower seed and sprinkled it in the hay. Let me tell you, they had a ball! Now they will have something to do all day. And I'll feel less guilty when the time changes and they'll have to stay in the coop all day!

 

[caddyeldorado2006]

Well for mine i was thinking because hay is way too much to spend, that i can put pine needles in there ..but have no clue, hay is great to use, but sometimes i find the hay on the run and not in the coop.lol

 

[JudyMcKinn]

I have a large pen, probably 25 ft X 80 ft. I take a bale of hay and toss it in and flake it out into about 6 or 8 large flakes. They love it, and scratch it all apart. Maybe we have a dryer climate (SW MO) but we get rains. I have never had any trouble with it molding--they keep it stirred around, and it gives them something to do. Sometimes I do as the above poster and toss in a couple handsful of scratch or BOSS, and they really go to work finding that.

 

[TerrasCritters]

I think the cedar is a flip flop kind of thing, I have seen people swear its no good, and people swear by using it with no ill effect.

I have also used it in my nests, I was told it works for hens who are sitting and have mites. I found one of my hens who were broody had mites earlier in the year. I added it to the nest but didnt notice or look to see if it helped any, her clutched hatched soon after and I took them and gave all the adults a good rub for mites.

 

[southernsibe]

Ozarkhen,
A word of caution about round bales. I don't mean to be presumptuous, you may know this already but if not I hope it helps. Please make sure you keep your round bales stored in a completely dry place where they will not get any moisture on them. Wrapping them doesn't work since that actually traps the moisture that the grasses release during the drying that it continues to go through. Round bales will mold from the inside out as well. I understand what you mean by rolling it out, and it is a fabulous idea as long as you keep your spare bale dry, or you are going to be overwhelmed with all sorts of mold spores. I just went through this myself. I wound up loosing about 25% of the hay at least from my round bales because I didn't store it just the right way. Hope this helps,
Rachel

 

[ozark hen]

Thanks Rachel, we plan on sitting the bales side-by-side and unrolling them as it will take two bales to stretch the width of the run. There will still be lots of area not covered since it is so wide. Their run is open anyway, since I discovered they flew over it and it was too expensive to cover the entire thing at the time. ha It will be essentually the same thing as Judy has posted above. I will put the bales out mid to late winter so they have something to scratch for. They claim by next spring you won't have any more weeds in the run but lots of good things for the chickens to pick at. Our run is very high in weeds now. It is a wonderful article so I will try it out this winter and see how it actually works for us here. I mulch every single year with lots and lots of straw over all my gardens and haven't had a mold problem yet. I use enough that I don't have to dig up my cannas, etc. Could be the weather here? Also the article states to use OLD ROUND BALES OF HAY. Now they should be completely dry ....you would think??? I guess we will see how it goes. Thanks for the info because if for some reason we get more than we need we will store it under roof.