pine needles for bedding??

[Joy P]

ok, that is good to know.

They seem to like it. It smells good too. Thank you

 

[Ladyerat]

So I'm looking for some feedback about pine boughs. Though this is an old thread, I thought maybe someone could advise on this: Christmas trees! We never treat them with flocking or fragrances and with it now being post-Christmas and time to take everything down, I was thinking of using the pine boughs from our tree for added cusion and fragrance in the coop. I do a modified deep litter method (coop gets cleaned down to the floor about every 2 weeks-ish. I plan on using the boughs unless someone can give proof to any idea that it wouldn't be healthy for our girls. Thoughts??

 

[Joy P]

So far my dried pine needles are working out good.I can scoop out poop easier than when it is straw. I would think you would want to dry yours first a little more. My pine needles had fallen off a huge white pine and all I did was raked them up. You don't want moisture in the coop for this winter. Moisture creates mold. Some put a whole pine tree in the run, but that would be outside. The pine smell does not seem to bother my chickens at all. I love the smell to.

 

[Ladyerat]

Well, I had planned on using the dried boughs in the coop. But...all this snow kind of changed that idea. Lol, this is our girls first winter and first real accumulation. When I went ouside to let them into the run/yard, I expected them to all come boiling out of the coop as usual. Nope. The ducks were slightly more game but the hens were having none of it! Omg. Hysterical. Stood atbthe door of the coop just bewildered. Kept giving me the stink-eye like I had done it on purpose. 9inches of snow at 7:30-8ish. We took all the boughs and lined most of the run. They finally all made it outside. I think hunger was the driving factor but they wouldn't step off the boughs if they didn't have to. Even with the tarp over it, the run still managed to get some drifting. Lol, they wouldn't leave thw run either. Even tho I left the door open all day. Good thing at this point. With over 16 inches of snow on the ground, I'd lose even the darkest of my girls in it!

 

[Joy P]

Yea, my girls hate the snow too!

 

[carla olson]

Older posts or not I am extremely happy to have found this. Just moved into a home with a big yard & it is FULL all over the place with pine needles from years of falling & not really being cleaned up. I have been racking and carrying them to piles in the back. I hate to throw anything away & do not look forward to having to buy & pickup the bedding for the chickens that I am dreaming of finally raising.
I thought that pine needles might just be the thing for me. VERY good recycling idea. The only thing i am worried about is that it seems to be very mixed up with light potting soil that the previous tenants through out on the land in profuse amounts. It looks very clean but I see pearlite in it eveyrwhere.
Does anyone think that makes it toxic or any other problem with the soil being in it.
Thanks

 

[DonnaHeath]

we have 5 girls (down from 7) and their best playtime and foraging opportunity comes when they are out of their pens and in the yard under the pine trees. The deeper the dry brown tags, the more "yummies" they seem to find underneath. I agree with the one person who stated if they are walking in tags all day, whats a few more in their nests? part of their pen is separate from their nesting/roosting area and has leaves that fall through the overhead wire so we're worried about winter time frost when the leaves are prone to frost and freezing which impacts their feet. I think we are going to try the dry brown pine tags.

 

[Kglassmo]

Hi All,

Yesterday I went out to refil the nesting boxes with wood shavings and realized I was out, but had a hen who needed to lay an egg right then so I scooped up a bunch of pine needles and filled in the nesting box with them. The hens use these needles to make a nest in their nsting box that is right outside the coop.

So I guess my question is: WE have an abundance of soft pine needles at our house and could I just bag them up now and use them as bedding instead of buying $6 bags of shavings?? Can anyone see a problem with this? Also I use the deep litter method in our very chilly NH winters. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Hi! I’ve been using pine needles as nest box material for over 4 yrs now, as I find it better for my hens, easily compostable (verses wheat straw which takes a year to break down!). I highly recommended using it. I live in piedmont area of NC, where we have available pine needles. Use what nature provides! Plus it typically resists mold growth when kept dry, unlike wheat straw. Wild birds use pine needles as nesting material so why not domesticated chickens?! I do use pine shavings for my chicks/brooder tanks and my rabbit pens, but it tends to get dusty and takes longer to compost. I think you could do a light under layer of pine shavings for warmth if your worried about insulation; put pine needles on top. My hens love to mess with needles to make nests fancy in boxes! Good luck to you!

 

[Experience]

It has been a few years on this post. Has anyone had any problems using dried pine needles for their bedding? I have had them in the coop for a couple of months. I don't see any problems. Any thing new to add?

I have raised all the domesticated animals, every type of poultry there is for over 40 years and even raised 4,000 show rabbits with a USDA license, the only one in MD. I have seen it ALL. I have lived it ALL! I have developed remedies for everything for people, pets and livestock. As an herbalist/nutritionist/author/natural product creator and an organic farmer etc I have developed frugal, safe and quick methods for raising all these critters. And especially today noone can afford mistakes. With my white King pigeons (raising squab)I have used old dried pine needles as a natural pest control and a wonderful nesting material w/great success. Kinda hard to find them though! And today I even learned something new and at 74 yet. Amazing how an open minded person can learn at any age. I have spent a fortune on clean dried pine shavings. Today, I noticed my three week old chicks had a waterer full of shavings since they have graduated to a bigger brooder. My helper and I were overwhelmed with chores yesterday so we did not elevate the waterer. By the way the feed and water trough should always be shoulder height for birds. This prevents the pine shavings in ending up in the feed and the water. I have always used pine shavings on the coop floor, in rabbits' and poultry nests and in all my brooders for decades. BUT as I refreshed my herbal memories soaking pine shavings in the water trough is really a chick killer, hurts their liver! So within less than one day I have elevated the gallon waterer with simply pieces of concrete caps busted in half. I had them leftover from my 4' tall raised beds. Not only are these soaking pine shavings poisonous to fragile chicks BUT all pine shavings in general are also the worst bedding to use anywhere within the animal housing and even hazardous to our own respiratory tract. Chopped straw, pine needles or even clean dried leaves are the only beneficial absorbent materials. The dust, the natural oils in the pine shavings are not good for anything that breathes, eats or drinks. Whoa! and all the countless thousands of dollars I have spent on these fluffy good smelling shavings over the last 36 years on this farm alone. My rabbits even did a commercial for Eastern Wood Fibers in Jessup MD! Do what you want of course but everything has consequences. My first book is all about consequences. My farm is A.H.Herb'n Craft Farm and I am EFROSSINI AKA Fran Kisser

 

[Squeeing_Onion]

All caught up! Wow i love how many threads here are active for years so you get a full timeline of the pros and cons!

I plan on trying out pine needles for being; the location i will end up putting the coop happens to be under since of our oldest ones. We have the best fluffy long leafed pine trees and no one has 'cleaned up' in yeeeeears, so there's a very healthy layer of pine forest floor and needles galor!

I'll update with how it goes over the adventure begins, but I'm so glad i found this thread.

I second the idea of leaving the needles to dry in the hot sun before bagging. If they go into storage bone dry, they should keep for some time. Doing so in a thin layer will also encourage any bugs hiding in them to scamper off to find somewhere darker to hide.

I'm really interested in learning to make pine needle baskets now... You could weave your own bird hides from them, too! I plan on keeping quail so they wouldn't have to be very big