hay vs. straw in run

[fightingbunny]

How do you find grass hay? Most of what they sell is marked "Straw" without any details as to the source of it or what time of year it was cut.

 

[Howard E]

Local garden centers won't have it.

Best bet would be Craigslist. I just checked ours and found at least 20 sellers. Prices from $3 to $5 a bale.

Small square bales of mixed grass hay are easiest to handle.

 

[fightingbunny]

Which type of grass/hay/straw is best in nest boxes?

 

[Howard E]

For nest boxes, any grass hay or straw will work. Assuming you have a 2 or 3 inch front lip, that will hold in enough to form a nest bowl to cushion the eggs. I've used them all with not much difference. It does not take much.

BTW, the bottoms of my nest boxes are 1/2" x 1" welded wire. So open to the bottom. Any dirt, broken eggs, etc. falls through those wire bottoms to the deep litter coop floor below. Still, it only takes a couple inches even over the wire. To the recent poster, that also eliminates one more hiding place for mites. In the old school, if you needed to clean those up, you ran them back and forth over a fire to cook their little carcasses.