help me choose my bedding!!!!

[kimmerjo]

Im in the process of setting up my chicken coop. I have read on here about all the different bedding. Here is my dilemma. I have access to hay for free (family farm) but I hear its not the best. Im interested in the sand but I live in western ny so it get cold is sand a good insulator? And final dilemma my husband is cheap. What to do?

 

[Whittni]

Sand stays the temperature as the atmosphere around it. It won't really insulate well to keep your chickens warm in a cold winter. Free is great, go with the straw, its even decorative. You will have to shovel it every couple weeks but it makes great fertilizer if you have a garden. The sand helps compost poo if you're looking for less work. Since your Hubby is cheap, and you decide you prefer sand, use your skills to change his mind telling him about how you have bend over to clean the coop or all the benefits of sand and how it clumps like cat litter and less ordor or something. It'll come naturally.

 

[NYSAHMof3]

We are just starting as well. We are in NY too, capitol district. We have decided to attempt the deep litter method. Only experience I can give you is that we have given the "kids" a sandbox to play in, which they love, but it tends to be the smelliest part of their brooder. Pine shavings are very inexpensive, you probably have a local Agway you can buy shavings by the bale. Also I bought a paper shredder for ten bucks on Craigslist and am going to be shredding our daily newspaper into their litter! Hope lots of experienced people chime in!

 

[Framac]

Central NY here.

I do deep litter method with Shavings. If you coop has vinyl flooring, a plastic mouthed shovel makes cleaning easy. With 20-30 chickens in my coop, the only litter that gets heavy and compact is around the water. The rest is loose and dry. I clean out fall and spring, compost for the garden.

Hay holds moisture, and packs, harder to clean.

Framac

 

[NYSAHMof3]

Hey Central NY-

I have a question for you. I had an idea to eliminate the muddy bedding around my waterer. I started the chicks out on chicken nipples which completely eliminates anything getting in their water but still makes bedding muddy under it. So, for the coop I am going to hang a five gallon bucket with nipples in the bottom. I bought a rubber pig feed bucket to place under it, it's about 24" around and 6" deep. I am planning on putting a little bedding in the bottom to "soak" up the dripped water and contain the wet muddy bedding. Then I can dump the pig bucket weakly. I am thinking a little bedding in the bottom will discourage anyone from drinking the dirty water, but essentially they will have to stand in the pig bucket to drink. Also I am just going to use an equine bucket deicer in the winter. Thoughts?

Sorry it's off topic!

 

[Going Quackers]

I use flax bedding with the chickens. Light, virtually dust free and the droppings clump to it so it reduces it spreading around the coop.

I have horses so we have hay here but it's fed to the horses obviously lol i don't think it would be all that good for bedding a nest box perhaps but not throughout the coop but that is just me.

 

[MandalaMaMa]

I'm fairly new to having chickens but we started with wood shaving and quickly changed over to rice hulls. I love them and so do the girls. They make cleaning so much easier. I just use a kitty litter scoop and sift the rice hulls removing the poo. Plus the girls love looking for left over rice and they are not suppose to get poo poo butts. Also rice hulls breaks down much faster than wood shavings for composting.

 

[kimmerjo]

Talked with my husband, he warmed up to sand but we are still worried about the cold winter . Do you think it would stay warm enough if in winter we put some hay or other bedding with the sand?

 

[Framac]

Hey Central NY-

I have a question for you. I had an idea to eliminate the muddy bedding around my waterer. I started the chicks out on chicken nipples which completely eliminates anything getting in their water but still makes bedding muddy under it. So, for the coop I am going to hang a five gallon bucket with nipples in the bottom. I bought a rubber pig feed bucket to place under it, it's about 24" around and 6" deep. I am planning on putting a little bedding in the bottom to "soak" up the dripped water and contain the wet muddy bedding. Then I can dump the pig bucket weakly. I am thinking a little bedding in the bottom will discourage anyone from drinking the dirty water, but essentially they will have to stand in the pig bucket to drink. Also I am just going to use an equine bucket deicer in the winter. Thoughts?

Sorry it's off topic!

I tried the nipple waters on my birds at about a year old and they just never got it, so I switched back.

I believe your set up will work great. Depending on how you are setting up your waterer, one of those tank deicers for horse might also work in the nipple waterer. That is what I was going to try and do. I have multiple pens in winter (Breeding birds) and did not want to have 4-6 deicers running all the time. I use Rubber feed dishes, and replace the water twice daily. It works well.

The area in my coop that gets compact, UI have taken to cleaning when I do the small pens. Makes things a lot better.

Framac