Pine pellets: The circle of life

[Eyeheartquail]

I am sure you can ask for either, or. I always ask for the pressed pine pellets.

 

[chickbird]

I have noticed certain brands of pellet are better than others. Kinda weird. However, using the pellets totally outweighs using something else where they track poop all over the place, have a stinky living area, and have poop crusted all over their feet. In my opinion.

I LIKE THE PINE SHAVINGS BETTER, THEY SEEM TO ABSORB THE MOISTURE AND ALSO DON'T GET THE POOP STUCK TO THE FEET, THEY ALSO SEEM TO GO FURTHER THAN THE PINE PELLETS, BUT I WOULD SAY TRY THE PELLETS IN YOUR OWN APPLICATION AND IF THEY WORK FOR YOU THAT IS GOOD.

 

[mossypath]

I have an old wood planer that I rarely use any more. Being in construction I have lots of scraps of clean wood. You can make quite a pile in short time on a nice sunny day. Best of all the shavings are just about free.

 

[pondviewfarm]

I am raising my first group of chickens on pine pellets right now. I love the pellets so far!
The only thing that I am having trouble with is cleaning - every morning I put on gloves and pick out the chick poop by hand. It seems wasteful to empty out all of the pellets (a good majority of which are still clean) daily. Plus, I'd be going through a whole bag every day if I did that.
I am cleaning out and sanitizing the brooder once/weekly.

 

[dc3085]

I am raising my first group of chickens on pine pellets right now. I love the pellets so far!
The only thing that I am having trouble with is cleaning - every morning I put on gloves and pick out the chick poop by hand. It seems wasteful to empty out all of the pellets (a good majority of which are still clean) daily. Plus, I'd be going through a whole bag every day if I did that.
I am cleaning out and sanitizing the brooder once/weekly.

Build a dirt sieve. Use 1/2" x 1" wire and staple it to a rectangle made from 2x4s. Then just shovel the pine shaving in and shake them unitl all the poop fall through. you may have to experiment with wire size until you get the poop falling through leaving you clean shavings.

 

[pondviewfarm]

Thank you!

 

[Chickety Charcoal]

These are some great ideas everyone! I have a bunch of pine shavings already that I use for my chickens, but will have to check if my feed store has pine pellets and see if I can give them a try. I will be starting my quail project soon.