So, my run stinks. literally.

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Canina said:
I’ve unloaded literally thousands of bales of hay and straw on deliveries drawing blood up and down my arms and dug shavings out of a lot of bags but let me tell you there is a world of difference
Between a bit of a scratchy stalk or even a bale with a few thistles in it vs large solid and pointed stakes of wood covered in a thousand jagged splinters that get caught in an animal's coat and feathers and cause cuts and abrasions. Sure they have scales, but poultry get sore feet all the time. As keepers I think we should always be aiming for more than ‘just fine’ but that’s my opinion.
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So what do you use and think is best for them (sorry if you posted that earlier - I cannot see that)?
I use leaves in run and coop. They are free and I always have a couple of bags drying off in the garage, and then I use pine shavings, shredded paper, or white pine needles in the nest boxes. The shredded paper is that unbleached, un-printed packing paper and it is super absorbent if an egg is ever broken in the nest box.
 
RoyalChick said:
So what do you use and think is best for them (sorry if you posted that earlier - I cannot see that)?
I use leaves in run and coop. They are free and I always have a couple of bags drying off in the garage, and then I use pine shavings, shredded paper, or white pine needles in the nest boxes. The shredded paper is that unbleached, un-printed packing paper and it is super absorbent if an egg is ever broken in the nest box.
Click to expand...

I currently have mine on aspen. Not full of abietic acid and more finely shaved than pine, cedar etc typically are. I sometimes do an additional dust extraction though and if you live somewhere with high humidity and a lot of damp it can have a propensity to mould. It's really easy to spot clean but it gets bloody everywhere. When the chicks were hatched they occasionally tried to eat it so I ended up putting paper towel over the top intermittently. It's very soft, but every substrate has disadvantages.

Like potting soil on a solid dry base. Dirt is great. Controls odour, they can scratch and bath in it. But it should not be a soggy mudbath... And I would still recommend spot cleaning and turning over the dirt, I am thinking of switching to a blend of coco fibre and organic compost. Might even start an isopod colony so they can forage. Do people typically do bioactive enclosures for their birds lol. Maybe we should!

The type of paper based bedding you describe is great as well especially if you're sensitive to everything like I am or have sensitive animals like I do (ferrets!). Hypoallergenic, absorbent and low dust.
 
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Canina said:
Might even start an isopod colony so they can forage. Do people typically do bioactive enclosures for their birds lol. Maybe we should!
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Some people do-- typically starting with a bunch of wood chips in their run, and adding any other suitable material as it comes available (dead leaves in the fall, weeds in the spring and summer, vegetable trimmings from the kitchen at any time of the year, and so forth.)

It's not common to CALL it "bioactive," but it's well known that worms and other small living things move in, as the lower layers slowly decompose in place, and the chickens enjoy scratching through it all and finding things to eat.
 
NatJ said:
Some people do-- typically starting with a bunch of wood chips in their run, and adding any other suitable material as it comes available (dead leaves in the fall, weeds in the spring and summer, vegetable trimmings from the kitchen at any time of the year, and so forth.)

It's not common to CALL it "bioactive," but it's well known that worms and other small living things move in, as the lower layers slowly decompose in place, and the chickens enjoy scratching through it all and finding things to eat.
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I forgot to mention I also love the use of leaf litter! It's natural and makes sense if it's readily available to you. I think people forget chickens are omnivorous sometimes and how great those extra protein sources are for them. Such great enrichment them rooting around in all that. It can be annoying if they get tangled in it but I've come to realise just how much poultry in genera like sticky weed/cleavers. Do you ever get that in your neck of the woods?

I try to encourage these weeds where I am and have tasted a few of them myself.

https://www.ruralsprout.com/weeds-for-chickens/
 
NatJ said:
Some people do-- typically starting with a bunch of wood chips in their run, and adding any other suitable material as it comes available (dead leaves in the fall, weeds in the spring and summer, vegetable trimmings from the kitchen at any time of the year, and so forth.)

It's not common to CALL it "bioactive," but it's well known that worms and other small living things move in, as the lower layers slowly decompose in place, and the chickens enjoy scratching through it all and finding things to eat.
Click to expand...
I don't know - I call my acres of weeds a biodiverse polyculture. I'm all for calling my deep litter a "partially homogenized bioactive decomposition system".

But then, I'm an @$$. Don't be like me.

:lau :wee :lau
 

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