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

[GossChicks]

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Hi everyone!

Please answer the poll for your what you use in your coop...not run or brooder.


(Check out more Official BYC Polls HERE!)

I use astro-turf in the coop. I have a small coop for 4 chickens, so I put a piece of astro-turf the size of the coop floor. In the morning, I remove the turf, dump the poop off into a large flower pot, lined with a plastic bag; then, hose the turf off and let it dry before putting it back in for the night. If it has been raining a lot and the washed turf wouldn't dry, I have a second one to use as a spare while the other is drying on a rack in the laundry room.

This method has worked excellently for me for 2 years now.

 

[Secondof9]

Where are my dirt lovers?

In my area the dirt is wet muck most of the year! So it needs help with wood chips. 🌦

 

[One Lucky Momma]

Wood shavings with a good dusting of PDZ mixed in.

PDZ?

 

[City Farmer Jim]

We use pine shavings and PDZ as well in the deep litter method and am toying with the idea of hemp in the very near future. We use pine pellets from time to time. We like the deep litter method and have had no issues with smell or respiratory troubles.

 

[aart]

PDZ?

https://sweetpdz.com/

 

[Kiki]

It would be great to get an explanation so we could compare and maybe make better decisions.

Are you reading all of the posts in this thread?

 

[Kiki]

I’ve used multiple types of bedding and what works best for me is Rapeseed bedding!

Stays super dry and doesn’t stick onto feather footed breeds like other beddings do.

I use this is all my coops but I do also use it in the runs and brooders, it goes in them all.

Will you please change your vote... I'm adding an option for rapeseed now.

 

[Fur-N-Fowl]

Will you please change your vote... I'm adding an option for rapeseed now.

Sure all done!

 

[middle TN Nancy]

I use hemp.
I’ve put 4 30# bales in a 8’ x 16’ woods style open air coop. 3 to start in May, and added one more later because I didn’t think it was quite deep enough. Works fantastic, love it, can’t say enough good stuff about it.
I got mine from Gary Lyman @ Hemp Solutions near Boring/Damascus. $30 a bale. Also available at certain smaller feed stores. He’s a distributor. Here’s his website.
https://hempsolutionsoregon.org/
edited to add: I don’t anticipate having to change this bedding out for a couple years, just add an occasional bale on top.

I’m so glad to hear from someone who is using hemp and loves it. I’ve just gotten started with chicks and I designed my 4’x6.5’ coop for deep litter using shredded hemp only. My run is 6.4’x12’ and I’ve started assembling a mixture of materials for deep litter, including pine needles, leaves, straw, wood chips and shavings, hemp, grass clippings, etc., anything that is available. I hope this is successful, as from all reports deep litter is the easiest and healthiest for chickens. I’m planning to use just shredded hemp in the coop itself - it sounds like that has been working for you.

 

[middle TN Nancy]

I hate to sound stupid but I will reiterate here that I am new to this. ... what the heck is PDZ? Is it a pesticide for mites or some type of bedding material. I have racked my brained on what it could be abbreviations for and did a search for it in the forum topics but everyone keeps abbreviating it so I don’t know what it really stands for. Sorry clueless. Thank you!
Dumb Pam Mode

It’s a mineral that you can get at Tractor Supply - sometimes called Stall Fresh or something like that - people use it in horse stalls. But it or safe for chickens and works well on poop boards under roosts.