Straw or pine shavings in coop?

[Tropit]

I've been raising chickens for about 35 years and have always used straw. I've never had a problem with mites...never. Don't use hay. The leaves on it can rot and cause problems. Shavings and sand can be OK, but consider the dust issue and make sure whatever you use has a low dust level. You don't want your girls breathing in a lot of dust particles and end up with respiratory problems. Straw is clean, relatively dust free and is easy to clean out. It has a nice smell too.

 

[cgoodloe]

I hadn't thought of sand as dusty. I guess sandbox sand would be better than just any old sand. Low dust that way because kids play in it. I think I read somewhere that 2-3 inches of sand should be sufficient. Maybe it was 4. That's alot of sand at $4 a bag (home depot).

 

[mommy of two]

Just got our sand tonight 13 fifty pound bags for about $60! I can't wait to try it out tomorrow!

 

[Abirdbrain]

Heh! I do some wood working, and all the sawdust, and planer shavings go to the coops for bedding. We usually do some Halloween decorations that include straw bales, and after that holiday they literaly throw out the excess, and we go down the road and pick them up. Usually a dozen bales or so for the year. Just keep them under cover and we toss the flakes into the yard or in the houses, as the girls love to scrtch around in the stuff. Pine shavings ala horse bedding is good, and we keep about a 3 inch or more layer inside the small houses we have. It gets shoveled out when it gets to the point of stinky and well used. It is expensive for us, but it goes on the garden plots, and degrades there. It is the only material we buy. We put our neighbors lawn clippings he provides in the pens and they eat, scratch and have a good time with that too. At any rate it prevents us from having to move the pens for better soil control. All our pens and barns , tractor coops are set up to be moved, and we do whenever the mood moves us, it has become less of a ritual now. W ehave not had a mite or other problem yet, as our flocks are divided to about 10-20 birds each, and are pretty much isolated. We are building new flocks now and have about 60 outside, with another 60 or so in the brooder house. Chicks feathering out.

 

[chickiegal]

Cou

We've been using pine shavings for several years and while it is messy,I've found nothing that works quite as well. We use a modified deep litter and a poop board under the roost. The poop board gets cleaned daily and the shavings get changed about 4-6 times a year and we have no smell or other problems. 

 

[chickiegal]

Could you take a picture of your setup? Especially the poop board? Never have seen that and sounds like something I could use. How many birds do you have?

 

[Katcynth]

I read an article online about using sand.. I plan on making a huge pooper scooper out of a pitchfork as I saw on the Chicken Chicks site. Seems like a nice alternative to pine shavings. She also has pics of her poop board on there and some really good hints.


Some of the benefits she lists are:

BENEFITS OF SAND INSIDE THE COOPS

• dehydrates droppings
• doesn’t retain moisture
• doesn’t decay or degrade
• superior drainage (if water spills)
• inexpensive ($15.00 per yard)
• natural grit/no risk of crop impaction as with straw and hay
• easy clean-up (a once daily scooping & bi-annual change)
• doesn’t conduct or retain heat in summer (as straw/hay/shavings do)
• keeps feet clean and nails manicured
• exfoliates dead skin
• cleaner feet=cleaner eggs, particularly in rainy conditions
• any dropped feed gets found and eaten, not lost in the litter
• dust-bath mecca
• no decomposition required in compost pile, great soil amendment to compost
• looks cleaner than other litter options because it is cleaner

Feet stay nice and clean and nails are kept filed.

Read more: http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/09/chicken-coop-bedding-sand-litter.html​

 

[earthfriendlyfarm]

Love eveyone sharing their methods for keeping roost/nesting and pens clean. We use straw and DE with the deep method for winter. and spring we take it all out, compost it and put in river sand we buy local. And like you said, they love bathing in it, easir to clean, I will use a rake to a dustbin cut with holes to scoop poops. But I have one question..... no one writes about using cedar chips for nesting or bedding. Is there an issue. They sell it in the stores as such. I've been using it for several years, with no apparent problems to chooks. But saw a post saying it was very bad to use. Checked my Vet friends one said no problem, the other said yes problems. What have you heard/found? Thanks, don't want to do anything to hurt my babies either.

 

[kellieetal]

I'm thinking I'm gonna use the sand in the run itself. We have an over abundance of newspaper to shred all the time, so I'm thinking to use the piles of shreds (no plastic bits, staples, etc) in the nest boxes. But I'm up in the air about the coop floor bedding.

If I use sand/DE mix during the warmer months, that should be fine, but what about the cooler months? Would that be the time, then, to throw down a layer of ???straw over the sand? or maybe I could use more of the shredded paper over the sand. If I put a layer of anything over the sand, I'm envisioning that the benefit of ease of cleaning by "pooper scooper" will sort of be negated.

I do have several downed trees around the property, which I suppose I could make into either chips or coarse sawdust with a...borrowed chainsaw? Or maybe I'd need to rent a chipper/shredder for a day and do away with the downed tree/logs and scoop that up into a galvanized trash can w/lid? I read on one of the previous posts NOT to use woodchips/sawdust over/with sand. What was the reasoning there; messy and hard to clean up, or problems with impaction, or moisture retention? Sand/wood mix doesn't sound like a pleasant mix, personally, but if I have gobs of free wood around...? Also, the blasted FIR trees around here cover everything with needles/cones/fallen branch bits. Would there be any toxicity or moisture, etc. problems with raking that up from all over our yard and using IT as bedding either for the coop floor or the run?

I'm basically looking for the cleanest, dryest (as we're in the Pac. NW), but cheapest to buy (or salvage) and hopefully easiest to clean. Husband is all about cheap. I'm about clean and least hassle.

 

[GabeStalker]

I'm going to use sand in my run, i need some feed back on the exact type of sand i should use and where i could possibly buy it?

Also, would it be a good idea to just use sand in the run and straw in the coop? I'm just trying to narrow down my choices for bedding inside the coop.