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

[talkinboutchickens]

Yes! We've used it for 8 years in our coop and this past year started using it in our brooders too! No, they don't confuse it with their own feed. Of course, they all probably try it once and go "bleh!"

I've heard you can use grilling pellets for coop bedding but not the other way around. Usually, pine pellets aka horse bedding pellets are about $8 for 40# at farm stores. We take 3.5 bags for a 60-square-foot coop. We change them only once a year, in the spring. We haul it all out, which by this time is pulverized chicken poop and sawdust, and put some in the garden, around trees, in flower beds, and in the compost bins, then sweep and lay down another 3" or so, good for another year.



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OMG that's amazing how convenient the pellets are! And how you only use 3 and a half bags for a 60 square foot coop! It blows me away how pelleted bedding is available for most of us to use but a lot of us don't even know about it! We have giant gardens so its a plus that we can put it in our gardens when we clean it out. By the way your chicks are adorable

 

[talkinboutchickens]

I just recently switched to pine pellets in my run because we had a ridiculous amount of rain this year. I love it! When it gets wet, it basically turns into fluffy sawdust and it clumps up the poop. My chickens used to get poop stuck to their feet but not since I switched. I can just scoop the waste up as if the run is a giant litter box.

I still use shavings in the coop but that's because I'm doing a deep litter method and will pull it all out in the fall to compost for the garden.

Unfortunately, my chickens have a taste for sawdust... when my neighbor cut down a dead tree, there was sawdust around it and our chickens started eating it!!

 

[talkinboutchickens]

Ok thanks. I think I will give it a try then. I like keeping my bedding at 3” or so and hate the shavings but can’t justify me spending a crazy amount on something different.

I've seen the barbeque pellets which are basically the same thing go on sale at my local feed store and TSC for 3 bucks!The TSC brand pelleted horse bedding is the same price as a bale of pine shavings at TSC (only a 20 cent difference. Pine shavings being 20 cents more than the pellets.)

 

[talkinboutchickens]

Following along because shavings just aren’t working, it stinks and I did not like straw, very dusty. I like to get real opinions.

I hate shavings too! poop builds up like crazy under those perches and it smells bad

 

[talkinboutchickens]

I love pine pellets in my brooder but not so much with my older girls. I find that the big girls try to eat the pellets and that makes me super nervous. You could try hemp cuttings. I use them in my coop and they are amazing! Can't praise them enough.

I was thinking about hemp but it's SUPER expensive. I might actually try the pellets with my bantams that I might be getting since they won't be big enough to ingest the pellets.

 

[Debbie292d]

Following along because shavings just aren’t working, it stinks and I did not like straw, very dusty. I like to get real opinions.

I keep forgetting to mention that with the pine pellets/horse bedding pellets, that's another perk in that there is no odor in our coop or our brooders.

 

[Debbie292d]

Unfortunately, my chickens have a taste for sawdust... when my neighbor cut down a dead tree, there was sawdust around it and our chickens started eating it!!

It's just wood. As long as they are outside or have access to grit. They like scratching around in that sawdust we put around the trees for bugs.

 

[NagemTX]

Next time I need shavings I'm going to try the pellets.

 

[KyCoop]

I've used pellets turned into sawdust for a while now. I started out of sheer desperation as I don't have space for a huge compost pile.
Now when I clean the coop every other day, it's just a small bucket instead of a wheel barrow full.
I do go back to shavings in the winter. I feel like it's warmer. I also put a 3 inch layer of sawdust in their run In the fall, to help keep their feet away from the cold ground.
By the time the weather gets hot again, I'm back to cool bare dirt. Works out great.

 

[Debbie292d]

I've used pellets turned into sawdust for a while now. I started out of sheer desperation as I don't have space for a huge compost pile.
Now when I clean the coop every other day, it's just a small bucket instead of a wheel barrow full.
I do go back to shavings in the winter. I feel like it's warmer. I also put a 3 inch layer of sawdust in their run In the fall, to help keep their feet away from the cold ground.
By the time the weather gets hot again, I'm back to cool bare dirt. Works out great.

We're in Wisconsin with brutal winters and just leave the pellets in there year round. They are a good insulator too. We do not wet ours as they lose absorption capabilities then.

Truth be told, we have zero ventilation in our coop albeit a digital fan and vent in the human door that runs only when it gets hotter in there than it is outside.

Ventilation is pushed because the ammonia and humidity can build up to life-threatening levels, but with pellets, there is none of either. Our coop stays drier than the humidity outside, and the ammonia is absorbed, thus no smell, so the ventilation they get is just related to the temperature it is. We use a nipple bucket so no open water in the coop.