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

[gtaus]

My chickens get food and water 24/7 as well, plus they get goodies, my chickens are not "starving".

No offense intended. What I was trying to express was that lots of people feed a measured amount of feed per day and maybe the chickens are still hungry after they eat all their allotted ration for the day. Perhaps that leads some chickens to eat litter, in this case, paper shreds. I think it's more likely that some chickens, not familiar with paper shreds, might eat a little to see what is all about our of curiosity. When they find out it's not food, they would leave it alone.

I don't know because I have a hanging feeder that always has food in it, and I always have fresh water available, both 24/7. I thought having feed and water available 24/7 was maybe why I have never seen any of my chickens eating paper shreds.

In any case, I don't think a small amount of eating paper shreds would harm a chicken. And I think they are smart enough to choose real food over paper shred litter.

Thinking about it, I will add that I start my day old chicks on paper shred litter in their brooder. I don't know if that matters, but maybe it does. Even my day old chicks seem to know the difference between chick feed and brooder litter.

I have been using paper shreds as coop litter (and brooder litter) for over two years now without any negative effects. It works for me.

 

[gtaus]

I've never seen any of mine eat them either.

I have brooded on shred -

Thanks for those great pictures. I noticed that you will mix various litter material together. That's great. This winter, I started off with about 4 inches of leaves in the coop as litter and have been adding shredded paper about every other week. I will do that all winter, as needed, to keep the coop clean and litter fresh.

As I just mentioned, I brood on paper shreds as well and have had no problems.

 

[gtaus]

I sometimes see hens chowing down on paper shreds. So far, no one in my flock has died from it. I assume shredded paper is a good source of insoluble fiber and continue to use it.

Well, that's interesting why some chickens would eat paper shreds. I have not seen that with my birds. But I agree that it probably does no harm if they did eat some paper. Frankly, I do not much worry about my chickens eating any compost litter out in the chicken run or in the coop. It's just never been a problem for me.

 

[gtaus]

My chickens used to eat from the cardboard I put on the poop tray for easy cleaning. But they stopped doing so. I don’t know why.

Yeah, I cannot get into the head of a chicken to understand why they do some things, and then stop. I just enjoy them for what they are and try not to overthink the process.

I don’t shred the cardboard, but cut it in the right size to fit on the poop tray.

I don't use poop trays, so I shred all my cardboard. But a cardboard liner in the poop tray sounds like a good use for that cardboard.

I hope you compost that poop tray cardboard after you change it out. Cardboard is an excellent carbon source for composting. And it will break down really fast out in the rain and weather.

Although I don't have a worm farm, I have read that worms love the glue in the cardboard and will eat it up. It's like a treat for them.

Someday I would like to start a separate worm farm and use the worms as high protein treats for the chickens in the winter. Right now, my entire chicken run is a composting system and the chickens can dig down into the run litter and find all kinds of bugs and worms in the none-snow months. Of course, that is not possible now with everything frozen. I am sure the chickens would love some fresh worms in the winter if I can farm some for them.

 

[BDutch]

I hope you compost that poop tray cardboard after you change it out. Cardboard is an excellent carbon source for composting. And it will break down really fast out in the rain and weather.

I throw it in the waste bin. Because I don’t trust the cardboard in being clean from small particles that don’t belong in the garden.

I have been reading a thread on a Dutch gardening forum. And the conclusion was the cardboard is mostly free of poisons. However it’s not clear if cardboard is completely clear of things you don’t want in your garden. Not all inks and glues are fine. So if you put anything in your garden, best put cardboard in without much colouring. The cardboard printed with black ink is usually made of soy and okay.

Most cardboard here is from recycled paper and cardboard.
The so called grey waste or leftover waste (we differentiate our waste a lot) is collected to get burned in a waste plant/ factory where they make electricity with the waste and filter the burned air. The ashes are used under roads and other constructions.

Clean and dry cardboard goes in the paper waste and gets recycled. The recycle process gets out inks and plastics / tapes. But if the cardboard is polluted with chemicals or oil it goes into the fresh recycled ‘new’ cardboard.

 

[RoyalChick]

No offense intended. What I was trying to express was that lots of people feed a measured amount of feed per day and maybe the chickens are still hungry after they eat all their allotted ration for the day. Perhaps that leads some chickens to eat litter, in this case, paper shreds. I think it's more likely that some chickens, not familiar with paper shreds, might eat a little to see what is all about our of curiosity. When they find out it's not food, they would leave it alone.

I don't know because I have a hanging feeder that always has food in it, and I always have fresh water available, both 24/7. I thought having feed and water available 24/7 was maybe why I have never seen any of my chickens eating paper shreds.

In any case, I don't think a small amount of eating paper shreds would harm a chicken. And I think they are smart enough to choose real food over paper shred litter.

Thinking about it, I will add that I start my day old chicks on paper shred litter in their brooder. I don't know if that matters, but maybe it does. Even my day old chicks seem to know the difference between chick feed and brooder litter.

I have been using paper shreds as coop litter (and brooder litter) for over two years now without any negative effects. It works for me.

I think I have seen a couple of mine explore paper shreds to see if it is edible but have concluded it is insufficiently yummy. So maybe a few shreds have been eaten but certainly not much.

 

[Sally PB]

I don't leave food and water out 24/7 (mice can get into the run), but I put it out when I open the coop and remove it when I lock them up for the night.

It was just one hen who seemed to think shredded paper was good, and now that I think about it, she seemed to like the colored stuff the best.

I might try it again next spring, see if her tastes have changed.

 

[gtaus]

I throw [poop tray cardboard liners] in the waste bin. Because I don’t trust the cardboard in being clean from small particles that don’t belong in the garden.

That's too bad. From prior conversations, I think you guys are way ahead of us here in the USA in terms of recycling and environmental impact.

I have looked into our papers, newspapers, and most of the monthly flyers we get in the mail and they are all safe for composting. The cardboard boxes we get from Amazon and QVC are stamped with composting safe labels. So, I just compost everything now.

I will take off any plastic windows, plastic tapes, and shipping labels. But most of the packages we receive now are supposedly 100% compost safe. I think we have made great progress in the area of making our shipping boxes compost friendly. I have not heard of any unsafe glue being used in the cardboard boxes. Every time I check into the safety of inks, it's always been soy based safe composting inks for many years.

 

[gtaus]

I don't leave food and water out 24/7 (mice can get into the run), but I put it out when I open the coop and remove it when I lock them up for the night.

I don't have a mice problem. I have never seen any mice getting into my hanging 5-gallon bucket PVC feeder in the coop. Chickens are not going to eat in the dark, so removing the food for the night should not have affect on the birds. I'm not a real early riser, so it works better for me to use the hanging bucket feeder and waterer in the coop. The chickens have food available when the sun comes up and if it takes me a few hours longer to let them out into the run, they don't go hungry.

I might try it again next spring, see if her tastes have changed.

I was already shredding our mail before I ever got chickens. Over time, I got chickens and started using shredded paper as litter in the coop. Now, I shred almost all our paper, light cardboard, and heavy cardboard shipping boxes. I just do a little bit everyday as it comes in, and I don't get overwhelmed by a mountain of shredding work to do. So, using paper and cardboard shreds as coop litter just works into my existing lifestyle.

If you try using some shreds again, let us know if that one chicken still wants to eat paper. Again, I don't think it would hurt the chicken and I would think that she would soon lose interest in eating paper. I think even chickens have preferences in the food they eat, and I would imagine dry, dull, paper shreds would be very low on their preference list.

I also mentioned that this fall I had lots of leaves. So, I started off with about 4 inches base of leaves as dry bedding in the coop and have been adding paper shreds maybe every other week. The paper shreds are mixing well with the leaves. That should make some excellent compost material this spring.

 

[BDutch]

I think you guys are way ahead of us here in the USA in terms of recycling and environmental impact.

Only the environmental impact of waste. Very necessary, bc I live in a very polluted and dense country. We have too much polluting industry, too much polluting traffic, too much polluting farmers…. . The quality of the soil, the air and the surface water is poor/bad. You probably live in a healthier environment than most people in the Netherlands.
Im very pleased our EU government has made agreements (laws) with the goal to improve our environment quality.