Official BYC Poll: What type of COOP bedding do you like best?

[ShrekDawg]

It is Starbucks corporate policy to give the coffee grounds away. It saves them a lot of money in disposal costs. All Starbucks give their coffee grounds away.

Oh wow that’s awesome!

 

[aart]

It is Starbucks corporate policy to give the coffee grounds away. It saves them a lot of money in disposal costs. All Starbucks give their coffee grounds away.

Exactly...and it's 'green', so great marketing.

 

[Kiki]

It is Starbucks corporate policy to give the coffee grounds away. It saves them a lot of money in disposal costs. All Starbucks give their coffee grounds away.

 

[RedLionChooks]

Love hemp, all day in the coop. Super dry, not super dusty. Easy to clean out. No smell, great all around product. Plus, it's renewable without a huge tax on the environment.

In the run, we use wood chips. Our township supplies them by the dump truck load, so it is a win-win!

 

[ShrekDawg]

Why!?

 

[Birdielee]

I use pine shavings with an occasional load of leaf litter and hay tossed in. I like the theory of deep litter, but something so wet just doesn't work in my climate. What I do now is sort of a dry version of that.

How's that? What makes deep litter a wettish thing? I'm in humid land, too.

I need to figure out what to do over the winter.

I'm new but so far, in the coop I'm using sweet pdz and liking it. The run is dirt plus grass clipping plus garden weeds. When we got a good rain, it tried to get moldy. I had to pull all the mulch out and start over with dirt and a little hay.

The pdz dries the poops and lets the hen house smell like chicken instead of chicken poop.

 

[aart]

How's that? What makes deep litter a wettish thing?

'Deep litter' is an active compost, which needs moisture to work.

The terms 'deep litter' and 'deep bedding' are often misunderstood and misapplied.
I've always liked this explanation:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...-method-with-this-coop.1075545/#post-16440037

 

[Birdielee]

'Deep litter' is an active compost, which needs moisture to work.

The terms 'deep litter' and 'deep bedding' are often misunderstood and misapplied.
I've always liked this explanation:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...-method-with-this-coop.1075545/#post-16440037

thanks. That was very helpful.

So, @rosemarythyme, you use wood chips inside? or outside. And do you like them better than shavings, or are they just cheaper?

 

[rosemarythyme]

So, @rosemarythyme, you use wood chips inside? or outside. And do you like them better than shavings, or are they just cheaper?

I use wood chips inside the coop as the sole bedding, and then when cleaning out the coop twice a year, the used chips go into the run and become part of the deep litter mix in the run.

Part of the reason I use them is because they're free, which is as cheap as you can get. Plus I personally dislike shavings as bedding (yes I used them before), as they get clumpy when wet and it's hard sifting poop out of them. I keep a bag around just to put in the nest boxes.

 

[RebelChief]

I have shavings on the bottom of my coop, sand and now coffee grounds in the poop boxes, sand in the run and the play yard they have leaves and dirt. The coffee grounds make the coop smell SOOO good.