Pine pellets for coop bedding??? Does it work?? I'm curious....

[WingItRanch]

That's pretty awesome! That looks so nice actually!

Ours never get wet, albeit in the brooder the nipple bottle drips when they bang it, so there we get a little bit.

It's like a zen garden now... but with chicken poop!

 

[Bawkbok]

My experience with this is frustrating. I raked 4 bags of pine pellets into the run which is 108 square feet. Then the hurricane hit and we received a couple inches of rain. Due to the high winds we had to remove the top roof tarp so it wouldn't sail away as it's an open air run. That said, of course the run became soaked. The run is now filled with 3-4 inches of nothing but wet pine shavings and it stinks to high Heaven. Not a fresh pine smell like one might think. Since the rain last Thursday, every day, multiple times a day, I am scraping the saw dust around to loosen it up since it became nothing but a solid concrete smelly mess. I don't like the girls walking around on wet saw dust and they don't seem to like it. They no longer scratch around even after I loosen it. We left the roof tarp off for two days so the sun could dry it out, which it hasn't. I am terribly disappointed and don't know how to mitigate the bad saw dust odor. What can I use to help with the smell or should I just spend a day in back breaking work to remove it all? I am using the TSC pine pellets for horse stalls, so probably the same stuff you all are talking about. I see where it works well for SourRoses who also lives in humid Florida so I don't understand why our situation is so different. Is the difference because it's an open air run? I can't leave it uncovered as we've been in triple digit heat indexes here for days now - today it was 104 and the girls will absolutely roast without the top cover. I have a fan running 24x7 for air movement anyway but that is not helping to dry things out as I would think it should. Do i dump dirt from the compost pile on top of it and try to mix it in? Will that make it worse? If I add more pellets on top of what's already there, it will probably turn to saw dust also since it's a wet environment. Thoughts? Suggestions please. Thank you

 

[WingItRanch]

My experience with this is frustrating. I raked 4 bags of pine pellets into the run which is 108 square feet. Then the hurricane hit and we received a couple inches of rain. Due to the high winds we had to remove the top roof tarp so it wouldn't sail away as it's an open air run. That said, of course the run became soaked. The run is now filled with 3-4 inches of nothing but wet pine shavings and it stinks to high Heaven. Not a fresh pine smell like one might think. Since the rain last Thursday, every day, multiple times a day, I am scraping the saw dust around to loosen it up since it became nothing but a solid concrete smelly mess. I don't like the girls walking around on wet saw dust and they don't seem to like it. They no longer scratch around even after I loosen it. We left the roof tarp off for two days so the sun could dry it out, which it hasn't. I am terribly disappointed and don't know how to mitigate the bad saw dust odor. What can I use to help with the smell or should I just spend a day in back breaking work to remove it all? I am using the TSC pine pellets for horse stalls, so probably the same stuff you all are talking about. I see where it works well for SourRoses who also lives in humid Florida so I don't understand why our situation is so different. Is the difference because it's an open air run? I can't leave it uncovered as we've been in triple digit heat indexes here for days now - today it was 104 and the girls will absolutely roast without the top cover. I have a fan running 24x7 for air movement anyway but that is not helping to dry things out as I would think it should. Do i dump dirt from the compost pile on top of it and try to mix it in? Will that make it worse? If I add more pellets on top of what's already there, it will probably turn to saw dust also since it's a wet environment. Thoughts? Suggestions please. Thank you

That's a bummer! So I believe our climates are very similar. I'm in a humid, rainy part of East Texas. Some differences are that I have a roof over my run and I only did a single layer of pellets, not several inches deep. The chickens have been scratching it around so I didn't really need to rake until it all turned to sawdust from the last storm. It's not hard packed. I'm thinking that maybe the reason yours has solidified is because there's a thick layer and you had a massive amount of rain in one sitting without giving time to dry out and mix up.

My run has never smelled bad.

If it's so hard packed, I wouldn't add anything on top. You'd be with that stink forever. I'd try to break it up and scoop it out and start over. Maybe with a single layer this time?

 

[Bawkbok]

Thank you for your reply. I think I'm going to remove what I can and leave a thin layer on top of the dirt. We are expecting 3 days of rain starting Sunday (another something brewing in the gulf) so I need to get busy.
This morning I spent about an hour on my hands and knees with a hand shovel digging down into the dirt and mixing it in with the saw dust all over the run. It's really a mess now but since we have a slight breeze I'm hoping it dries out more.
My concern is the girls getting a respiratory disease but it hasn't happened yet so I think we're ok.

 

[Logar]

My experience with this is frustrating. I raked 4 bags of pine pellets into the run which is 108 square feet. Then the hurricane hit and we received a couple inches of rain. Due to the high winds we had to remove the top roof tarp so it wouldn't sail away as it's an open air run. That said, of course the run became soaked. The run is now filled with 3-4 inches of nothing but wet pine shavings and it stinks to high Heaven. Not a fresh pine smell like one might think. Since the rain last Thursday, every day, multiple times a day, I am scraping the saw dust around to loosen it up since it became nothing but a solid concrete smelly mess. I don't like the girls walking around on wet saw dust and they don't seem to like it. They no longer scratch around even after I loosen it. We left the roof tarp off for two days so the sun could dry it out, which it hasn't. I am terribly disappointed and don't know how to mitigate the bad saw dust odor. What can I use to help with the smell or should I just spend a day in back breaking work to remove it all? I am using the TSC pine pellets for horse stalls, so probably the same stuff you all are talking about. I see where it works well for SourRoses who also lives in humid Florida so I don't understand why our situation is so different. Is the difference because it's an open air run? I can't leave it uncovered as we've been in triple digit heat indexes here for days now - today it was 104 and the girls will absolutely roast without the top cover. I have a fan running 24x7 for air movement anyway but that is not helping to dry things out as I would think it should. Do i dump dirt from the compost pile on top of it and try to mix it in? Will that make it worse? If I add more pellets on top of what's already there, it will probably turn to saw dust also since it's a wet environment. Thoughts? Suggestions please. Thank you

I would restart personally. Since you are in such a rainy area I would try using pine bark nuggets. I am in a very rainy area as well, not as bad as florida but we still get a lot, and I have had no issues. I haven't had to replace them in the 2-3 months I have used them. I plan on adding a new bag every couple of months as they do break down over time. these are the ones I used
https://www.homedepot.com/p/2-cu-ft-Mini-Pine-Bark-Nuggets-52058083/100348875#overlay

 

[Bawkbok]

I would restart personally. Since you are in such a rainy area I would try using pine bark nuggets. I am in a very rainy area as well, not as bad as florida but we still get a lot, and I have had no issues. I haven't had to replace them in the 2-3 months I have used them. I plan on adding a new bag every couple of months as they do break down over time. these are the ones I used
https://www.homedepot.com/p/2-cu-ft-Mini-Pine-Bark-Nuggets-52058083/100348875#overlay

Great suggestion. Thank you for the link. Will definitely try this after the clean out.

 

[WingItRanch]

Thank you for your reply. I think I'm going to remove what I can and leave a thin layer on top of the dirt. We are expecting 3 days of rain starting Sunday (another something brewing in the gulf) so I need to get busy.
This morning I spent about an hour on my hands and knees with a hand shovel digging down into the dirt and mixing it in with the saw dust all over the run. It's really a mess now but since we have a slight breeze I'm hoping it dries out more.
My concern is the girls getting a respiratory disease but it hasn't happened yet so I think we're ok.

I'm sorry- that sounds miserable!

 

[Bawkbok]

I'm sorry- that sounds miserable!

Which part? The impending three days of rain or me on my hands and knees crawling around digging in the dirt? I feel like I am tasting saw dust in the back of my scratchy throat. Ugh.
I also think I am entertainment fodder for the people behind us who sit on their porch essentially 24x7 and do nothing but watch my every move. Geezopete.

 

[CrazyChickLady64]

Hi all!
I've been thinking..... What if I switch over to pine pellets for the bedding in the chickie's coop?
Pine shavings just plain suck and they are awful at controlling the odor. Pelleted bedding also seems to go on sale pretty often at TSC.
The problem is... I feed my chickens pellets. Will they confuse the pine pellets as their food since it's the same size and color?
So what are your guy's experiences with this pelleted pine bedding or pelletized alfalfa bedding? Does it control the odor? Is it easy clean-up? Do any of you scoop the poops out of the pelleted bedding just like scooping the cat litter?
Could I use grilling pellets when they go on sale?

Thanks!

I started using the pellets horse stall bedding I put water in the bag to get it to break up but not enough to soak. BEST THING EVER!

 

[CrazyChickLady64]

Which part? The impending three days of rain or me on my hands and knees crawling around digging in the dirt? I feel like I am tasting saw dust in the back of my scratchy throat. Ugh.
I also think I am entertainment fodder for the people behind us who sit on their porch essentially 24x7 and do nothing but watch my every move. Geezopete.

I would plant a living fence