Poll. Shavings or straw in nesting bixes?

[cajunlizz]

Quote:
well , I use only the pine shavings and I have no odor , no flies , and chickens scratch shavings over poop and no muss and no fuss . YOU CAN NOT smell anything in the coop except pine scent . LOVE IT .


and I promise you , cleaning will be a BREEZE . nothing is stuck to the floor . So just rake or sweep out and replace MAYBE once a month if that soon . $5.50 for large 100 lb . bag of pine shavings

 

[cajunlizz]

Quote:
Dust bath in Pine shavings ? . Man , I guess I am a lucky one , never had any problems NOT what so ever . and I got 48 head .

NOW , I had a friend that used hay and straw and his flock was so infected with mites it was unreal . I converted him to Pine shavings and its been 2 years and problem solved .

 

[Guitartists]

I use shavings for the floor and under the straw..... but I use straw because, well, the chickens like it!

I have a rabbit cage in the coop for the little ones and I throw a bunch of straw in it and they can't wait to get in there, burrow around and make a nice little bed

I keep everything dusted with DE, including the chickens. So far, so good.

I'm not sure about all creepy crawlies... but head lice die after 48 hours if they have no food source. I would think if you kept your straw away from all critters for a few days, anything that would live on them would die off. This would of course not apply to any bugs that will lay eggs ON the straw itself.

Certainly something I hadn't really fully considered before..... but they also get outside and into grasses, bushes, etc..... so, they are exposed either way I guess.

 

[chicamama]

"I keep everything dusted with DE"

What's DE?

 

[firem3]

Im a hay guy myself. we have a hay farmer nearby.

 

[cajunlizz]

Diatomaceous Earth ....... Look it up online and will explain

 

[Guitartists]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=1560-Food_Grade_DE

 

[cajunlizz]

Quote:
I was just telling hubby that maybe we might have to use hay during the winter months .

He stressed the fact that our chickens will only be use to the pine shavings , and he does not want them to start laying eggs in the hay .

 

[chickenlickin8]

I use both....layer of pine shaving and then top it off with straw (hay). The girls like to pull pieces of hay around them when preparing to lay their egg. Seems to work pretty well and no bug problems or anything like that.

 

[3peeps]

Pine shavings sprinkled with DE. It's worked well.