To worm or not to worm that is the question.

[tnjoann]

Hi, I answered on my blog but I'll answer here too. I use arborists wood chips. These are wood chips that tree companies produce when they chip downed branches, take down trees, grind stumps, etc. Every city or utility company does this work and so does every tree service. Most of them will deliver the wood chips for free. They are big, chunky, splintery, ugly wood chips. There's sticks, chunks of wood or shredded leaves mixed in a lot of the time. These are usually cheap or free. You can call your city or local tree companies and get a name on a list for having wood chips delivered or a service like Chipdrop might be able to help (though I've had NO luck with them). Some landscape companies will also deliver them for very cheap to your house and this is how I get mine ($20 delivery and then $1/yard for the material). Deliveries will be dump truck loads from 8-12 yards. This is a good amount for filling in a big pen nice and deep for 1-2 years. FOr those who don't know a yard is a cubic yard, or 27 cubic feet. So a yard of material will either cover 27sqft 1 foot deep or 54sqft 6inches deep.

Thank You ChocolateMouse. I thought you might be talking about the chips from trimming trees but wasn't sure. I have an area in my big pen that gets muddy with heavy rain and I want to avoid that.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Thank You ChocolateMouse. I thought you might be talking about the chips from trimming trees but wasn't sure. I have an area in my big pen that gets muddy with heavy rain and I want to avoid that.

Yeah the whole last 10' of my lawn used to flood a few inches deep in water. It doesn't any more. Most of the water soaks into the ground and water travels freely through the woodchips..

 

[aart]

Quote: Best to use not so fresh ramial chipped wood, better to let it set for a few months at least before putting in chicken yard to let the first fungal bloom fed by that freshly cut 'wet wood' balance out.

Also good to mix other dried plant materials in with the wood chips.

Here's a great description of contents and how to manage organic 'bedding' in a run or coop...and there's a great video of what it looks like.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1037998/muddy-run-help-please#post_16017992

 

[ChocolateMouse]

We don't have that option here. I live in a suburb with no vehicle access to my pen. After the wood chips are dumped in the drive they have to go into the pen within two weeks or we get fines. Usually we also only have one day of people helping move it and we can't move it all on our own in a reasonable time frame. So in it goes, pretty much fresh as the day we get it. Never had any problems. But we also do that just out of necessity. Still, not sure it matters much either way.

 

[aart]

We don't have that option here. I live in a suburb with no vehicle access to my pen. After the wood chips are dumped in the drive they have to go into the pen within two weeks or we get fines. Usually we also only have one day of people helping move it and we can't move it all on our own in a reasonable time frame. So in it goes, pretty much fresh as the day we get it. Never had any problems. But we also do that just out of necessity. Still, not sure it matters much either way.

I only give that warning as it happened to someone last summer:
fresh chips, dead birds, poultry histology affirmed aspergillus fungus which infected the birds lungs.
Might not be probable, but it's definitely possible something to think about.
I was able to get ramial chips that had sat on someones land for a year, hauled them myself in a trailer.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Fair. I also don't own a trailer or a car capable of hauling nor do I know anyone with those resources. Another hazard of living in postage stamp lawn country.

You could always try to innoculate it with your own fungi. Toss some mushroom spawn in there a few days beforehand. The competition of these "good" fungi in the competition might help to keep the bad fungi down to low enough levels to be harmless. Turkey tails will grow in just about anything. And chickens can eat the mushrooms.

 

[tnjoann]

Best to use not so fresh ramial chipped wood, better to let it set for a few months at least before putting in chicken yard to let the first fungal bloom fed by that freshly cut 'wet wood' balance out.

Also good to mix other dried plant materials in with the wood chips.

Here's a great description of contents and how to manage organic 'bedding' in a run or coop...and there's a great video of what it looks like.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1037998/muddy-run-help-please#post_16017992

Thank You aart I will check out the link. I would have the space to store and age the chips if I can't find any already aged.