Using Shredded Paper for Coop Litter - As Good As Wood Chips?

[3KillerBs]

It must be cheaper than paper.

By at least 50% per bag.

The bags are thinner now than they used to be and less reusable, which is annoying. I find it less and less possible to substitute them for trash bags in small containers, to catch vegetable scraps for the chickens, etc. because they've gotten so flimsy and ill-made that they leak.

Also, stores tend to double-bag everything now because the thinner bags break.

Does anyone have a good way to shred newspaper? I find newspaper is really low quality and will jam up my shredders.

Would it cut with an old-fashioned paper guillotine? Or would those shreds be too big to work properly?

 

[Iluveggers]

If you came into my store, picked some rolls out of the individual roll bin, and just put them into your cart without their protective bag they'd be rattling around with your produce, your chicken salad, your canned tomatoes, your boxes of macaroni, the package of pork chops that you didn't notice was leaking until you got to the cash register, etc. and all the dust, dirt, bug droppings, etc. that came from the warehouse and the public.

We try to have as little waste as possible. I now buy most of my produce at the farmers market and throw it into my reusable bags. They also usually have fresh bread available with bags upon request, but I have one plastic bag I reuse if I buy bread there. The 2 grocery stores by me both have a bakery aisle with pastries, donuts, & muffins you can grab with tissue paper, and put into a collapsible carrying cardboard box. Thr cashier will just ask what is inside to ring you out. I buy my meat locally or eat what DH hunted, so there never is meat juices in my reusable bags. If I could find a fresh source of unpackaged cheese, I would buy that also, as once we open cheese it gets stored in a glass sealed container in the fridge. We compost as much as possible, use reusable cloth napkins, and our garbage has gone down to a third of what it was. I try to avoid the grocery store as much as I can, but go there for condiments and boxed pasta and rice. Very fortunate to have so many local options near me, I know a lot of people don’t.

 

[NatJ]

Let me ask again.... Does anyone have a good way to shred newspaper? I find newspaper is really low quality and will jam up my shredders. I can only shed a small amount of newspaper and then have to follow it up with office paper or light cardboard to clean the cutters. Not a big problem, but it would nice if there was a way to shred a pile of newspapers and not have to worry about jamming up the rollers.

I've shredded newspaper by hand.
It shreds very differently in one direction than the other. One way, it easily makes long narrow shreds. At 90 degrees to that, it tries to rip into weird wide chunks.

Depending on how much newspaper you have, hand shredding might be an option.
If you always put it in the shredder one direction, you could also try turning it sideways to see if it behaves differently.

Or you could use the newspaper some other way, such as spread flat on the ground to smother weeds (and topped with wood chips or something similar to keep the newspaper from blowing away.)

 

[gtaus]

It works the other way too... cultures with intermittent electricity thinking it is wasteful to buy a larger amount at a time. Because it would be in their area.

Don't understand what you mean, Please explain it to me.

I have lived countries with intermittent electricity. My solution was to buy a battery backup system for my computer so it would not suddenly turn off in the middle to something. Other than that, you learn to live with spotty electrical service. Takes some planning to get ready for work in the dark, or taking that cold shower early in the morning, but I lived through it.

 

[gtaus]

there never is meat juices in my reusable bags.

My grandma, who lived through the great depression of the 1930's, never through out a plastic bag. They would get used and washed over and over. But, there are times when a bag is used to hold something and then that bag should not be reused for fresh food anymore.

Dear Wife and I don't always see eye to eye on "disposable" items in the house. For example, I ask her to give me the old dish scrubbers when she changes them out. I tell her that I can use them in the garage to clean up tools and such, and then throw them away. When working with gas and oil, I need items that can be disposed of after maybe only one use. Same with old toothbrushes, great for detail cleaning of items in the garage and thrown out when no longer useful for cleaning. In both those cases, and perhaps others I cannot think of right now, Dear Wife is more inclined to just throw them in the garbage bin and I have to dumpster dive in my own house to retrieve those items.

Oh yeah, as much as I have been telling everyone that I shred almost all our paper products at home, Dear Wife still insists on throwing the paper stuff into the recycle bin despite how many times I have asked her to just give the paper to me to shred. Again, I have to pull paper out of the recycle bin to shred it. Every once in a while she will give me something to shred up, maybe if I'm in the house at that moment, but if I am outside or in the garage, the item gets tossed into the recycle bin or garbage without a second thought.

It's really hard to change your own behavior, almost impossible to change someone else's habits.

We compost as much as possible, use reusable cloth napkins, and our garbage has gone down to a third of what it was.

Fantastic! Dear Wife and I used to have about 2-3 kitchen garbage bags full every week. Now that I shred all our paper products and we recycle so much other stuff, we are down to maybe 2-3 kitchen bags of garbage per month. A dramatic decrease in the amount of garbage I have to haul out to the landfill. And yes, I have to bring my garbage bags to the recycle/landfill center 15 miles away because where I live, in the country, we do not have garbage pickup.

Since I started raising backyard chickens, I have managed to use all the grass clippings and leaves in the chicken run. No more bags full of that stuff being hauled out to the landfill. Small branches either get processed in my wood chipper or are used for new hügelkultur raised beds to grow food. Years ago, my father and I would bag up all that stuff, or fill up the utility trailer, and haul it off to the landfill.

Very fortunate to have so many local options near me, I know a lot of people don’t.

I have lived in third world countries and know how some people don't have any luxuries in their lives. I have been very fortunate in my life, and my petty complaints are not all that important in the big picture.

 

[gtaus]

I've shredded newspaper by hand.

I have been getting arthritis in my hands, and shredding paper by hand is no longer the option that it would have been years ago.

If you always put it in the shredder one direction, you could also try turning it sideways to see if it behaves differently.

I have not noticed any difference in the direction of shredding the newspaper. The problem is that the newspaper is of very poor quality and will wrap around the cutter rollers, jamming up the shredder if I don't alternate shredding other paper products.

Or you could use the newspaper some other way, such as spread flat on the ground to smother weeds (and topped with wood chips or something similar to keep the newspaper from blowing away.)

Yes, I do that also. Makes a great biodegradable weed barrier for a few months. Lay down some newspaper in the pathways of the garden, and then top it off with either grass clippings or wood chips. Ditto for cardboard that is too heavy for my small household paper shredders.

Bonus: Worms are known to love the glue in cardboard boxes, so that makes a great weed barrier that will break down in a few months sitting out in the garden.

 

[gtaus]

Would it [newspaper] cut with an old-fashioned paper guillotine? Or would those shreds be too big to work properly?

I am only interested in shredding paper products using a machine, at this stage of my life. My hands are just not as young as the rest of me feels.

One of my oldest paper shredders shreds the paper into long thin strips. That would work fine in the coop as deep bedding. I think the crosscut shredders are better.

I don't have a micro cut shredder, but think that maybe micro cut paper might be too fine? Would be great to hear from anybody that uses micro cut shredded paper in the coop.

FWIW, the last two paper shredders I bought were from the local church thrift shop for $5.00 or less. They were crosscut shredders and work fine. If I see a micro cut shredder show up for sale at the thrift shop, I'll buy one and let you guys know if the micro cut shreds are as good, better, or worse than the crosscut paper shreds.

 

[saysfaa]

Don't understand what you mean, Please explain it to me.

I was trying to say that practices that don't make sense in one context, do make sense in other contexts. People sometimes see things differently if they understand a couple more pieces of the context.

 

[gtaus]

I was trying to say that practices that don't make sense in one context, do make sense in other contexts. People sometimes see things differently if they understand a couple more pieces of the context.

Well, I can agree with that. I just don't understand what it had to do with intermittent electricity. Not a big deal. Understood the rest of your post, just that tiny bit left me confused.

Dear Wife says I'm getting more confused lately. Just the other day I said to her, "I see you got another pair of new shoes." To which she responded, "You must be confused. I bought these shoes a long time ago." So, there you have it, I must be getting more confused lately!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I was wondering if your chicken was eating other kinds of bedding/litter too? FWIW, I have food and water available 24/7 for my birds, so I have never seen them show any interest in eating paper shreds or wood chips. I can't imagine that paper shreds would taste very good, so I don't know why your chicken was eating them. Maybe just something new to her and thought she would give it a taste?

Our chickens used to eat the shredded paper, years ago when we first started using it, but I haven't seen them eating it in recent years. Seems odd that each new generation of chickens does not go through a period of trying it out to see if it's any good. Wonder if earlier generations told the younger ones not to bother?