how much do you spend on wood shavings?

[dftkarin]

I bought a $6 bag of compressed wood shavings and have only 7 chicks - 10 days old at this point and I've already used half the bag of shavings (I think its 3.5 compressed something, a big/heavy bag)! When I look at pictures of big coops on this board (big for me, I'm only keeping 3 or 4 chickens, so my tractor plans are modest) it looks like so much clean beautiful shavings are in them - do you guys spend a lot on buying shavings?

 

[mtnhomechick]

Nothing........I use straw. When I clean out the coop and run my husband uses it to grow grass. It's great fertilizer and ppl actually want to buy it from me but so far I haven't sold any cause we want it. Funny huh? I could probably make more on dirty straw than fresh eggs.

 

[KellyGwen]

When my chicks were little I bought nice fresh aspen shavings from the pet store, but when they moved into the big coop and were smarter about not eating the shavings I just went to our local pallet mill and got enough shavings for the whole coop for free! Do you have a mill or a large stable near you? Maybe you could get a small amount for nothing?

 

[patandchickens]

When I had 2 grown hens in a 6x11 indoor pen last winter, I bedded it initially with 2 bags of shavings ($5 each), tossed in a half bag later on, and that was it for the whole winter and honestly they would have been FINE on the same bedding for at LEAST another 3-4 months had I not put them out in the tractor when the weather warmed up.

Right now I have 9 speckled sussex in a 7x20 indoor pen, bedded initially with 2 bags of shavings and I add another half bag every 3 weeks or so. I do rake up and remove the worst parts periodically, and fluff up the rest so it stays dry. I will probably take the whole thing out and compost it in a few months and start fresh bedding before winter. But to me anyhow that does not seem insanely expensive -- that is like maybe $30 bedding for half the year <shrug>.

If you have REALLY GOOD ventilation (and I suppose less than 99% humidity

), the poo pretty much dries out in the litter and does not have to be kept all removed all the time the way you would in a horse stall or whatever.

(edited b/c I forgot to mention: I have droppings boards under my roosts and clean them every morning -- that removes about 50% of the poo and moisture from the coop right there, which IMO helps a whole big lot).

JME,

Pat

 

[ginbart]

Patandchickens, Can you tell me what later is? Thanks

And I pay $5.95 for pine shavings at W-M

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

I've got about 75 square feet of floor space in my coops. I usually put about an inch or two on the floors and I am going through a 7.5 CF compressed bag every two weeks.

One bag will last me throug two weekly cleanings, but I've got to be sparing with it.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
I'm sorry, could you rephrase the question, I must just be having a stupid moment but I don't understand

Pat

 

[WestKnollAmy]

I guess we kind of cheat. We use 2 bags of kiln dried shavings a week in my DD Guinea pig cages and the old used ones go out to the coop for the chickens to play in. Now the new chicks got clean fresh shavings to start but in the coops we just let them play in the Guinea pig poop and add their own and then take it out and put all that in a big mulch pile. Ours does double duty. And our chickens are let out of the coop every day so they aren't in it all the time. We did let it get deep at one time but it was really hard to clean out then so we change it more often now.

 

[ginbart]

Quote:
I'm sorry, could you rephrase the question, I must just be having a stupid moment but I don't understand

Pat

I'm having the stupid moment
NEVER MIND, You said

"tossed in a half bag later on"

OK I'm tired. I understand it's not you it's me.

I thought you said lather and I didn't know what lather was.​

 

[SewingDiva]

I paid $10 for the 4.0 cubic ft. bag at Petco and $6 for a 7.5 cubic foot bag at Agway (its the iarge size bag - I think that's the cubic measurement)

But I live near Boston, and everything costs more here.

~Phyllis