Safe Coop Bedding?

[nepenthes99]

I was planning to use pine shavings in my coop as well as my brooder but have read on other threads that they can cause problems. What is a safe bedding material for my coop and my chicks?

 

[americana-lover]

I use pine shavings for my coop, and I havent found any problems. In the winter, I use straw because it's warmer.

 

[cafarmgirl]

I have raised chicks and kept adult birds on pine shavings for years with never a problem. Most pine shavings sold for pets and livestock bedding is kiln dried and screened so it's not to dusty. I suppose if you were getting fresh sawdust from a mill you might have more issue with strong smell and certainly dust.

I have noticed that if you talk to enough people and, especially, read enough threads you'll find that there's supposedly something wrong and dangerous with just about every aspect of what we do in the chicken keeping world!

 

[Egghead_Jr]

When brooding I use paper towels for the first few days to week. The wee chicks need that time to strengthen legs before putting them on uneven and loose pine shavings. Also they need to get tall enough so you can raise the feed and water up to keep pine shavings out of them. It's a real pain cleaning out the water dispenser 5 times a day so we stick with paper towels for a bit. Basically they are so big the brooder gets far too messy and needs pine shavings and at that time they are tall enough to eat and drink from raised dispensers.

I'm sure you noticed. We use pine shavings in brooder and coop too.

 

[nepenthes99]

Thank you all for the replies. The pine shavings I use are bought from petco/petsmart and are pretty dust free. I have never heard of people using paper towels, I will definitely try that with my next batch of chicks.