If you've used both pine shavings and wheat straw for bedding...

[Folly's place]

My coop has a concrete floor, and I use shavings as deep bedding, and hay or straw in the nest boxes. The birds pull the nest box material onto the floor, and it gets mixed into the shavings. It works fine. When I first had horses, straw was the bedding of choice. Switching to shavings made life MUCH easier! Straw/ hay bedding is much wetter and harder to clean out than shavings! Mary

 

[kekstrom]

As I waded through that thread, the thought that kept coming to me was "why not do both"?

When working with a compost pile, what quickly becomes evident is the more variety you can add to it, the better. Coarse (wood chips) and fine......straw......and chicken manure (nitrogen), as well as grass clippings and just about anything else you can throw in there will help. If it is wet or smells, add more chips and straw (carbon). Coarse enough some air can get to it........moist enough to support the bugs and get things breaking down. Not wet......moist. Big difference. Goal is to get the right proportions of carbon, nitrogen, air and water to make the compost pile work, and then keep it there.

And use the birds to mix it. Scratch grains are just that.......toss out a hand full or two on top of the litter and watch them go to work scratching and digging.......and in the process, working the compost pile......mixing and aerating. Get that right and it should not be wet or smelly......well not bad smelly. More like good smelly as good compost is.

I think you're onto something....

 

[kekstrom]

So in ya'lls experience, this layering would require how much space, as in how deep? Should my coop run be ready for 6 inches of bedding being turned over by the ladies and myself? Or more like 3-4inches?

 

[Folly's place]

I start with three to four inches of shavings after cleaning out the old stuff, and then add more as time goes by, and some scratch every couple of days to encourage digging it around. Mary

 

[kekstrom]

I start with three to four inches of shavings after cleaning out the old stuff, and then add more as time goes by, and some scratch every couple of days to encourage digging it around. Mary

I am technically starting on fresh grassy lawn.... thinking of just building it up naturally with their coop house bedding tossed in when I clean it out, and then grass clippings, wood chips... stuff like that....?

 

[Folly's place]

I don't add damp stuff like fresh grass, only dryer materials. Mary

 

[kekstrom]

I don't add damp stuff like fresh grass, only dryer materials. Mary

Gotcha.... Finally something to do with my dryer lint.

Get it? Get it? Oh man... Surrounded by kids all day and my brain is goofy.

 

[FlyWheel]

Gotcha.... Finally something to do with my dryer lint.

Get it? Get it? Oh man... Surrounded by kids all day and my brain is goofy.

Doncha just love spell check?