Thats not bugs OR snow 🤧

[Echelontheory101]

This video just nails home for me why I've been so coughy the last couple days.

Thats not bugs or snow... its dust... that when the camera turns to night IR mode it can see when I cant see it with the naked eye. The chickens are settled down into their huddle box for bed so theyre not currently kicking anything up as you can see and yet a full 30 minutes after I left the coop all that dust is still swirling around.

This is only a winter problem though because the dust only started like this since I wrapped the hardware cloth sides of the coop in plastic. There's a lot of ventilation up top which is obviously why there's so much moving air up near the roof line where this camera is and it's moving the dust around, if I had no ventilation it wouldn't be flying around like this, but I don't really know how to keep the dust level down while the coop is wrapped for the winter cause I still go in there and spend a good amount of time in there.

The Coop floor is sand and where they're bedding down is all hemp bedding. Maybe I try covering the entire floor in the hemp bedding for the winter and then rake it all out in the summer? Because I love the sand the rest of the year it's so much easier to clean than the hemp bedding. But also that amount of dust flying around and breathing in all the time is not cool with me either. But it could also just be chicken dust not sand dust lol

Any advice or tips and tricks that you do in your setups to keep the dust down happy to hear what everybody's doing since I obviously can't hose the sand down either because it's 15° out so it would all freeze before it could dry.

 

[Debbie292d]

We use horse bedding pellets year round. They keep the coop dry and odor-free as they absorb the moisture and dry out the poop. There is no dust, and when they get wet they turn to dustless, fluffy, sawdust. When it turns to about 80% sawdust, we change them out. That's about once a year in the coops. In the brooders, I change them every other batch of chicks.

 

[Echelontheory101]

We use horse bedding pellets year round. They keep the coop dry and odor-free as they absorb the moisture and dry out the poop. There is no dust, and when they get wet they turn to dustless, fluffy, sawdust. When it turns to about 80% sawdust, we change them out. That's about once a year in the coops. In the brooders, I change them every other batch of chicks.

That might be worth trying this winter but I love the sand the rest of the year. Ill look into it!

It could also be chicken dust and not sand dust but dont really have a way of knowing that. Maybe I'll cover the floor in tarp for a few hours this weekend and see if the dust is still flying around like that. If so its the chickens not the sand and then can try and find a solution from there haha

 

[Debbie292d]

That might be worth trying this winter but I love the sand thebredr of the year. Ill look into it!

It could also be chicken dust and not sand dust but dont really have a way of knowing that. Maybe I'll cover the floor in tarp for a few hours this weekend and see if the dust is still flying around like that. If so its the chickens not the sand and then can try and find a solution from there haha

It probably is from the chickens. I'm thinking it might settle better into the pellets so it's not laying on top of the sand, but I wouldn't know that for a fact. I just know we have cameras in our pens and coops and we'll see a little bit of it but not to that extent.

 

[Echelontheory101]

We use horse bedding pellets year round. They keep the coop dry and odor-free as they absorb the moisture and dry out the poop. There is no dust, and when they get wet they turn to dustless, fluffy, sawdust. When it turns to about 80% sawdust, we change them out. That's about once a year in the coops. In the brooders, I change them every other batch of chicks.

Its really making me want spring to get here faster only *checks watch* 4 months away I really dont like having the coop wrapped up like that. I dont know how people have those enclosed sheds/buildings with one or two little windows as their coops, so stuffy!

 

[Echelontheory101]

It probably is from the chickens. I'm thinking it might settle better into the pellets so it's not laying on top of the sand, but I wouldn't know that for a fact. I just know we have cameras in our pens and coops and we'll see a little bit of it but not to that extent.

So if i just look up horse pellet bedding its all more or less the same? Or is there a particular brand or kind you recommend?

 

[Sefirothe]

I use horse bedding pellets in my coop also........and my night time coop camera video looks exactly like the one @Echelontheory101 posted. I have 10 half grown pullets in there too tho so it totally could be chicken dander.

 

[Debbie292d]

So if i just look up horse pellet bedding its all more or less the same? Or is there a particular brand or kind you recommend?

We get them in a 40# bag at tractor supply. They're around $8 per bag. We put down a couple of inches and leave it alone for months if not a year. As long as they say 100% pine and they're horse bedding pellets, they should be the same thing.