those of you that use hay or straw in your coop

[stone_family3]

How often do you turn it or mix it around.

 

[Connorrm]

I use wood chips. I throw down scratch for them to stir it up. I also thrown down a 50/50 mix of barn stall lime/sweet PDZ once a week. I use about 2 cups of this and then I have small coop rake that I mix it up with. No smell, and works excellent!

 

[Evelle]

i use grass hay
straw bugs live in so stay away from it.
and i stir it around every day and change it out one or twice a month

 

[stone_family3]

I'm currently using a bale of timothy hay that my rabbit refused to eat. It's only $3 a bale so if I can I'd like to stick with that.

 

[KDK1]

Quote:
It will be fine... your chickens will keep it mixed for you whether you throw scrarch in it or not. It's their nature.

 

[stone_family3]

yeah they tend to only mix it up in one area, so I turned it and "fluffed" it up for them. They had a blast exploring the new terrain.

 

[Gullygarden]

Quote:
It will be fine... your chickens will keep it mixed for you whether you throw scrarch in it or not. It's their nature.

I raised my chicks on Timothy and used it as bedding in the coop too. Nice until our humidity caught up with it and I eventually had to get rid of it as the mold was too much. So I recommend against it in a very humid climate.

 

[Bleenie]

I use Straw, I buy from a local farm because theirs is better quality & finer than the feed store straw (smells better too!). I cover the run floor with it and turn it daily when we get our usual WA weather, but since its been SO hot, I only have to turn it once a week and everything looks good and stays pretty clean.

 

[SueBaby]

Our girls turn their straw for us. We bought a bale of straw, but ran it through our leaf mulcher because the pieces were too long. We are trying the deep litter method, so we are not changing the straw out, just adding more as it "disappears". So far it's working well. We bought some Sweet PDZ but haven't used it yet. The flies are not too bad at all. This is in San Diego where it's not too hot, not too humid, not too anything, really.